Diageo fined £18k over distillery falls

Drinks firm Diageo Scotland Ltd has been fined £18,000 after two employees were hurt after falling at separate sites in Moray.

Diageo Scotland has been fined after two workers were injured in falls

On 16 March 2012, Peter Douglas, then 43, was standing on the engine bonnet of a loader shovel to wash the roof at Glenlossie Dark Grains Plant in Thornshill, Elgin, when he slipped and fell more than two metres to the ground.

He was admitted to hospital suffering a bleed to the brain plus a shattered bone in his left leg, and has been left with short-term memory problems bus has returned to full time work.

Two months earleir on New Year’s Day 2012, Robert Edward, then 51, fell four metres from a portable ladder while clearing a blockage inside a chute in a grain silo at Burghead Maltings in King Street, Burghead.

Edward was discovered unconscious on the floor by a colleague and subsequently taken to hospital to be treated for concussion, a cut on his head and a dislocated finger.

He had restricted movement in his hand but has now returned to work.

Failures

Diageo pleaded guilty before Elgin Sherriff Court after Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed the company had “failed to take sufficient” steps to prevent ladders being used in unsafe circumstances when clearing blockages at Burghead Maltings.

At Glenlossie, HSE inspectors discovered instructions on how to wash the shovel were passed down from one employee to another in initial training to be a loader shovel operator, with no risk assessment or written instructions for cleaning the machine as Diageo assumed this would be done at ground level.

“Both of these incidents, which could have proved fatal for the workers involved, could have been avoided had Diageo Scotland Ltd ensured its employees were adequately protected from the risks associated with their jobs,” said HSE principal inspector Niall Miller.

“In both cases Diageo had provided work at height training, which included risk assessment training, and believed their employees should be competent to plan and carry out work at height.

“However, it is not sufficient for health and safety instructions merely to be given to workers; employers must also ensure those instructions are carried out.”

A spokesman for Diageo said: “We deeply regret the two accidents that took place as we take the safety of our employees very seriously.

“Since both incidents occurred we have put extensive measures in place to ensure that accidents such as this do not occur again including changes to working practices and additional training.

“This will ensure that we can achieve our number one priority that all our employees and anyone visiting our sites goes home safely every day.”