Dairy giant Müller has been fined £400,000 after its failure to adequately risk assess roof work led to an employee falling 4.5m through a fragile panel.
Manchester Crown Court heard that three workers were not given any information about the fragile fire board panels before they accessed a roof void at the firm’s premises on Lake Road, Trafford Park, in order to change the refrigeration gas in the dairy plant’s chilled storage units.
On 8 July 2015, one of the workers stood on a fragile panel at the edge of the roof space and fell down the void between the chilled unit and the outer wall of the building. He sustained serious injuries to his head and body.
The HSE found that Müller failed to carry out an adequate risk assessment before workers accessed the area, and failed to share information about the presence of the fragile panels before work was started. The fragile panels were not clearly visible, had no warning markings and there were no barriers to prevent access to fragile areas.
