Prosecution Details

Being an employer failed, so far as was practicable, to provide and maintain a working environment in which its employees were not exposed to hazards and thereby contravened sections 19(1) and 19(6) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984.

On 30 August 2003 the Accused operated a fast food chicken outlet at Ardross, and employed the injured person to work in the kitchen. On that date he was walking through the kitchen when he stepped onto the lid which covered a grease drain in the floor. The lid flipped up exposing the drain and he stepped his right leg into the drain.

The lid did not have any lugs or legs to hold it in place. The injured person was helped by two other employees and was taken to hospital where he underwent an operation to reconstruct his right knee. Subsequent to the accident the accused arranged for lugs or legs to be welded onto the lid to hold it in place over the drain.

Several months prior to the date of the offence a leg of a table in the accused's kitchen had fallen into the same drain whilst the accused's employees were using it to salt chickens. The leg fell into the drain because the lid had flipped up off the drain.

The accused pleaded guilty.