Exel hit with penalty for falling boxes

Prosecutions and Claims |
15.10.2007

Exel Logistics must pay more than £35,000 in fines and legal costs after a worker was injured by a stack of falling boxes, some weighing as much as 30kg.

In October 2005, warehouse administrator Franca Germano was supervising the offloading of 800 individual cartons and boxes from an overseas shipping container at Exel's site in Bletchley, Milton Keynes. The cartons were unwrapped and were not held on pallets.

As Germano helped unload the cartons from the container, a stack fell on top of her, hitting her head and upper body. She was off work for three months after the incident and is still having physiotherapy nearly two years later.

An investigation by Milton Keynes Council's environmental health officers found that Exel had failed to train workers properly on the risks associated with handling and unloading unpalletised cartons. It had no specialist handling equipment to reduce the amount of manual handling required, and there were no working platforms to enable staff to reach cartons above head height.

Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court heard that the risk of boxes falling was "very high" but Exel had not properly assessed the task or put in place safe systems of work for staff loading and unloading stock in the rear of vehicles. There was no evidence of adequate arrangements for monitoring and reviewing preventative and protective measures.

Exel Logistics pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to take reasonable measures to ensure the health and safety of employees and temporary staff. On 21 September, magistrates fined the firm £12,000 for each offence plus prosecution costs of £11,288.

Milton Keynes Council's chief environmental health officer, Phil Winsor, told HSW that Exel had received a warning about unsafe working practices before Germano's accident and he believed the judge had given this fact "due weight" when setting the fine.

Exel has since changed its working practices and installed a conveyer for unloading operations.