Company Fined £300,000 After Employee Paralysed

Bernard Matthews, a large company specialising in turkey products, such as Turkey Dinosaurs, has received a hefty fine after Colin Frewin became sucked into a machine whilst working for the company in January 2020.

Mr Frewin worked on a production line, where turkeys would be moved along a conveyor belt to chill them. At the time of the incident, Mr Frewin was cleaning the conveyor belt when he noticed that a turkey had become stuck at the bottom.

In an attempt to dislodge this, Mr Frewin used a squeegee but he was unfortunately pulled into the machine, where he remained until a colleague noticed that he was missing and heard Mr Frewin’s calls for help.

The emergency services were called and but sadly Mr Frewin was left with lifechanging injuries, which included a pierced lung, broken ribs, a fractured spine and a spinal bleed, leading to him be in an induced coma for half of his six month hospital stay. Despite extensive efforts by medical practitioners, Mr Frewin has been left permanently paralysed.

Following the incident, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) completed an investigation which concluded that turkey giant operated an unsafe system of work, with the chillers continuing to run when Mr Frewin attempted to dislodge the product.

The company, which supplies millions of household with their Christmas dinners, admitted the breach and subsequently received a £300,000. Despite this, it is estimated that the founder of the company had acquired a person fortune of around £300 million at the time of his passing in 2010.

Mr Frewin advised the Court that: “I will never walk again and so I will be in a wheelchair permanently. I now have a suprapubic catheter, which was inserted via an operation. The district nurse has to give me bowel care every day and visits me daily at home…

“I feel isolated as I cannot go out when I want as I need people to assist me. I cannot socialise with my friends and family as much as I can’t fit my wheelchair into their homes… The accident has affected my life and my family’s lives.”

Shockingly, only five months prior to Mr Frewin’s accident, a production line had to be closed at the same premises due to a fault, requiring employees to be transferred to a surplus line.

When working on the alternative line, Adriano Gama, 34, attempted to dislodge a turkey wing. However, when doing so, his glove became caught in the conveyor belt and he was pulled into the machine, sustaining a broken arm and damage to his muscles as a result.

The Health and Safety Executive’s investigation noted that the surplus line was excluded from the daily checks completed on the other production lines and, as such, its safety was not guaranteed.

A team leader had also noted that two safety guards had been removed  from the machine and this was reported before Mr Gama’s accident had occurred. Despite this, Bernard Matthews failed to action the matter, leaving employees exposed to a risk of harm.  Following this initial incident, the company was fined £100,000.

The Health and Safety inspector advised that:

“If Bernard Matthews had acted to identify and manage the risks involved and put a safe system of work in place, [both incidents] could have been easily prevented.. the consequences were devastating for Mr Frewin in particular.“

Our Thoughts

Sadly, we regularly represent individuals who have seen the devastating impact a lack of health and safety can have on employees.

No person should go to work and leave with an injury but unfortunately this is very common, particularly in highly pressurised environments such as factories where businesses can often put profit before welfare, despite individuals working for a small fraction of a large corporation’s wealth.

We often hear that managers fear shutting down, servicing or repairing machines as every minute of down-time can cost the company large chunks of money.

However, ultimately, businesses owe their workers a duty of care and if this is breached then it can lead to a compensation claim, a fine or criminal prosecution, which can have far reaching consequences, not just for the victim but on the brand and reputation of the business itself.

Compensation can often seem a small price to pay compared to the life-long injuries a person can be left with but we as a business focus on reimbursing the victim as much as possible and we will always seek private treatment where possible to improve a person’s recovery.

Further reading

For further information regarding employees rights, the remedies available and potential repercussions on employers, we would recommend reading our following article, Guidance To The Law Surrounding Accidents At Work.

Original news story: Bernard Matthews fined £400k after worker left paralysed – foodmanufacture.co.uk

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