Indesit feels heat for falling cookers

Prosecutions and Claims |
10.01.2008

Leading household appliance manufacturer Indesit must pay nearly £40,000 in fines and costs after an employee suffered serious injuries in an accident at its Northamptonshire warehouse.

The incident happened in December 2006 at the firm's Raunds depot, where white goods are stacked and stored directly on top of one another. A stack of six cookers fell on the worker and he suffered a fractured neck and head injuries. He had been operating a forklift before the collapse, but it is unclear exactly what he was doing when the cookers fell.

An investigation by East Northamptonshire Council's environment health department revealed that Indesit had failed to risk assess the activities involved in stacking appliances on top of each other, and did not have suitable control measures in place.

The council's commercial health manager Julia Smith told HSW that since the accident, the firm has made various changes to the way goods are stored, including securing blocks of goods using elastic "tiger band" to make stacks more stable and installing barriers at the ends of aisles so that if there are any collisions, the impact is minimised. It has also restricted pedestrian traffic in the warehouse.

"They've also made wearing of seat-belts in forklifts compulsory," said Smith, "because it's thought that in the case of this accident the gentleman's reaction was to flee, but if he had stayed in the vehicle he might have been protected."

Indesit pleaded guilty at Northamptonshire Magistrates' Court to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, by not protecting employees, and Section 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, for failing to carry out a suitable risk assessment. Magistrates fined the company £16,000 for the first breach and £3,000 for the second, with costs of £20,500.

East Northamptonshire Council is now working with the Health and Safety Laboratory and industry nationally to produce guidance on the safe stacking of white goods.

The injured worker has since returned to work.