Broken back accidents cost Manchester clothing company £40,000

A Manchester clothing company has been ordered to pay nearly £40,000 after two employees suffered broken backs while at work.

Roco Clothing Limited was found guilty of health and safety offences following an investigation by council officers into two accidents at the company’s premises in Ardwick.

In separate incidents, two employees suffered serious injury to their backs after falling while working in the company’s main warehouse.

In June 2016, an employee working from a wooden ladder fell and sustained fractures to vertebrae in his lower back.

And in August 2016, a second employee fell while placing boxes on an upper level of racking, fracturing two vertebrae in his back.

A horizontal beam of the racking came away when the man stepped from a ladder onto the racking.

The racking had not been correctly installed and had never been inspected.

Roco Clothing admitted that the member of staff injured in June had not received any health and safety training, in particular in relation to working at height.

The firm accepted that, in both instances, the ladders provided were not suitable and should not have been used.

And they acknowledged that the risk assessments in place at the time of the June accident should have been reviewed and updated, both as a result of that accident and as a 12-month review.

The company had no previous health and safety convictions and no aggravating factors were taken into account by the court.

The company informed the court that since the accidents occurred they have invested in health and safety and improved procedures in relation to working from height.

At Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court on June 28, Roco Clothing pleaded guilty to two offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act and a further offence under The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.

Roco Clothing was fined £29,800, plus costs of £10,032.32 and a £120 victim of crime surcharge – a total penalty of £39,952.32.

Cllr Rabnawaz Akbar, Manchester City Council’s executive member for neighbourhoods, said: “The judgement reflects the seriousness of this issue and the case should serve as a reminder to all businesses of the importance of implementing suitable health and safety systems – and the potential consequences if they are not in place.

“We take the issue of employee safety extremely seriously and will not hesitate to prosecute those firms failing their legal obligations.”

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