Johnathan Wain, a member of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) for eight years, was employed as a mixing bay operator at Premier Foods’s Stoke-on-Trent bakery. As part of weekend cleaning duties he had to clean a cage in the mixing bay.
When a cage is being cleaned a stainless steel pipe moves upwards but on this occasion as Wain shut the cage door, the pipe suddenly fell and struck his head.
Concussion
As a result of the accident, he suffered from concussion, headaches, dizziness and blurred vision. He had seven weeks off work for medical treatment to recover.
After the accident, he contacted the BFAWU, who instructed personal injury specialist, Thompsons Solicitors, to pursue a claim of compensation on their behalf.
Thompsons’ investigations found that a rubber seal was missing from the pipe, which meant that it had become loose and fell without warning. Following Johnathan’s accident, actions were taken by the bakery to ensure that all the pipes were fitted with the rubber seals needed to stop them falling.
Thompsons opened a claim against Premier Foods for failure to ensure a proper system of inspection and maintenance of the machine.
‘Extremely painful’
“The accident itself was extremely painful but it also had a big impact on my life for weeks,” Wain said. “What’s worse is that it could all have been avoided had the bakery properly maintained the machinery I was working on. I can’t thank Thompsons and BFAWU enough for their efforts in holding my employers accountable.”
Deborah Roberts, who represented Wain, said: “A failure to carry out basic maintenance by employers too often leads to terrible consequences for their employees.
“This accident kept a hardworking employee out of work for seven weeks and yet it could all have been avoided by simply replacing a rubber seal.”
BFAWU general secretary Ronnie Draper said: “Despite the best efforts of this government to water down health and safety, employers have a legal duty to ensure that machines are properly maintained and here it simply did not happen. This isn’t a question of red tape it’s a question of common sense.”