Live-in employees at risk in mushroom factory

Posted on April 25^th 2012

Many liability insurance policyholders worry about accidentally breaking health and safety rules. Not so for Suffolk Mushrooms Ltd, who openly flouted the rules and put the lives of employees at serious risk in doing so.

On an official visit, the Health and Safety Executive were surprised to find Suffolk Mushrooms housing 37 of their employees in a disused office block, unfit for habitation. To make matters worse, the block had an unsafe gas boiler that hadn't been granted a landlord's gas safety certificate and could have caused serious loss of life.

It didn't end there. While most liability insurance claims are often the result of minor infringements, Suffolk Mushrooms Limited clearly wanted to really push the limits of health and safety.

For a start, their forklift truck drivers were untrained and equipment was towed without any towing equipment; unless you count a piece of rope. Large vehicles were also driven between mushroom growing sheds where people were walking. Basically, it was an accident waiting to happen.

HSE Inspector John Claxton explained: "Suffolk Mushrooms invested more than £1.5m in refurbishing its factory and mushroom growing equipment, yet failed to spend even a few hundred pounds to keep its employees safe. The workers were from Eastern Europe and most were unable to speak good English, and so were vulnerable to this type of exploitation."

They'll need every penny of their liability insurance after being found guilty for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. They were fined £10,750 and will be required to pay the £8,446.05 court costs.

Related links

HSE press release

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