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UK News - Breaking news in the field of health and safety
Retailer failed to protect staff from risk of falls ...
Retailer failed to protect staff from risk of falls from height
The inability of prominent floor coverings retailer, Carpetright, to adequately protect its staff from the danger of falling from height while they accessed stock at one of its branches led to a court appearance and fine for the company at Taunton Deane Magistrates' Court last week. The company admitted a breach of health and safety legislation by failing to ensure the safety of its staff at the Priory Fields Retail Park premises, Taunton, which resulted in a fine of £3,000 with £429 costs.The local authority-instigated prosecution arose from information that employees at the store were placing and retrieving stock from on and behind high level racking, by climbing on to the racking through the airport-type steps provided and were thus at considerable risk of falling and sustaining major injury or worse.A Taunton Deane Borough Council Environmental Health Officer discovered the practice after visiting the newly opened store in June 2004, a warning delivered to the company the previous year about unsafe storage practices at its old store going unheeded. Carpetright plc describes itself as 'Europe’s leading specialist carpet and floor covering retailer with 402 stores and concessions in the UK and Republic of Ireland.'
"Falls from height are one of the main causes of workplace fatalities in the UK and it is imperative that businesses take these risks seriously. Climbing onto high level racking is widely known in the wholesale and retail trades to be unsafe practice. Carpetright had been warned previously about unsafe practices at its old store, so for the inspector to find this in a brand new store was clearly unacceptable." - The Council's Executive Member for Environmental Services.
