Risk, Health and Safety Information

Shropshire egg supplier fined for worker's fall

A Shropshire egg supplier has been prosecuted after a female worker suffered serious foot injuries falling through a hole in the floor of a poultry barn.

The 43-year-old Shropshire woman, who does not wish to be named, fractured two bones in her left ankle and the heel bone in her right ankle as result of the fall on 26 July 2011. The injuries have prevented her returning to work at Staveley’s Eggs Ltd, where she had been an egg packer for six years.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today told Shrewsbury Magistrates’ Court that floorboards had been taken up for building work immediately behind a door regularly used by the worker on an upper floor. No warning signs had been posted and no one had informed her of the repair work being carried out.  

The woman opened the door outwards and fell more than two metres onto the concrete ground floor below, shattering bones in both ankles.  

The court heard she spent eight days in hospital for an operation to have two plates inserted into her left ankle in order to stabilize the joint.  She has since had a further operation on this ankle and suffers from poor mobility.

HSE prosecuted the worker’s employer, Staveley’s Eggs Ltd, based at Stoke-on-Tern, after an investigation revealed that no written risk assessments or basic instructions existed and that the flooring work was only verbally discussed. No safeguards to prevent a fall from height had been identified nor were any protection measures in place.

 HSE inspector Lyn Mizen said after the hearing:

"This worker suffered serious injuries in this incident and has been unable to return to work.  And after enduring a lengthy and painful recuperation process, she still suffers from restricted movement in her ankles, finding it difficult to walk very far.

"This incident could have easily been prevented if a suitable risk assessment had been carried out.  Fundamental and basic measures such as nailing the door shut or posting warning signs had not been taken.

"Bean bags or air bags underneath the hole would have provided appropriate and relatively inexpensive fall protection for all employees.

"Clear guidance on working at height is available from HSE and it is regrettable that the company failed to follow this."

Staveley’s Eggs Ltd of ‘The Poplars’, Warrant Road, Stoke-on-Tern,  Market Drayton, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 6(3) and 11 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was today fined £25,000 and ordered to pay £2,386 costs.