IN COURT

摘要

Forklift fine. Encirc, a glass bottle producer, has been fined ￡500,000, with ￡7,290 costs, after an employee broke his arm when he was struck by a forklift truck on 14 December 2015 at its premises in Elton, Chester. Encirc had faced previous enforcement action over its workplace transport standards. The fine represents ￡1.6% of Encirc's 2015 pre-tax profit of ￡30,992,000, which it made on a turnover of ￡241,027,000. The HSE found that Encirc failed to segregate its workers from forklift trucks, and that the "clarity" of segregation was well below expected standards. Furthermore, Encirc "had a poor system of work which was not enforced for the workers who were most exposed to the risk". The HSE had served an improvement notice in 2007 requiring a risk assessment and action plan because of poor segregation in the yard and filling hall, and an employee had been injured by a forklift truck in 2008. Encirc was sentenced on 22 May by a district judge at Liverpool Magistrates' Court, after it admitted failing to organise the workplace so that pedestrians and vehicles could circulate safely (reg. 17 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992). Encirc was previously fined ￡18,000 in 2015 and has received four other (unrelated) improvement notices between 2007 and 2014.