CATERING COMPANY IS FINED AFTER A WORK ACCIDENT INVOLVING A LIFTING INJURY

A manufacturer of industrial catering equipment, Lincat Ltd, has been fined £19,400 and ordered to pay substantial legal costs after being found in breach of health and safety regulations following an employee suffering an accident at work.

The employee, Rolf Cinavas, worked as an oven assembler and suffered a groin injury when he was required to move a pizza oven weighing 96kg without the use of any mechanical lifting gear.  He and his supervisor had to move 5 ovens from a waist high assembly bench and put them on pallets that were on the floor.  As a result of the accident he was unable to return to work for 9 weeks.

The company admitted being in breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 as they did not have a clear health and safety policy statement.  They were also in breach of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.

COMMENT:-

Since the accident Lincat Ltd has changed its working practices, but this was too late to save Mr Cinavas from suffering an avoidable injury.  Laws regarding lifting weights have been in place for many years, but failure to comply means that employers are still putting their staff at risk of injury.

Lincat Ltd could have prevented this work accident by providing simple lifting equipment.  If they had done so, they would have avoided the fine and legal costs.  However, Mr Cinavas has strong grounds for pursuing a claim for personal injury compensation against the company, and which could increase their financial exposure by £1000s.

PERSONAL INJURY CLAIM SOLICITORS:-

If you have suffered any form of accident at work contact personal injury specialists Hinchliffes Solicitors for immediate legal advice, to find out if you are entitled to make claims for injury compensation.  All cases are dealt with on a No Win - No Fee basis, where the successful Client keeps 100% of the compensation recovered.

Call now on 0800 138 1348 to speak direct to a personal injury lawyer or go to our Start Your Claim Now page to submit details of your personal injury claim online.

Tags: accident, lifting injury, personal injury compensation, work accident

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 10:33 am and is filed under ALL NEWS ITEMS, Lifting Accidents, Work accidents.