On Friday, 9 June 2017, at Minshull Street Crown Court, Trafford Council prosecuted the owners of TGI Fridays, a restaurant in the Great Hall at the Trafford Centre, for failing to meet health and safety standards.
After pleading guilty, Thursdays (UK) were fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £15,961 in costs to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
This related to an accident on 26th May 2014 when a kitchen chef (who had only started working the previous month) was moving a pan of hot oil with another member of staff. The pan slipped from their grip and the oil spilt on the chef, burning his shin and foot.
The Court also heard that the company had failed to ensure the safety of employees, because an unsafe practice had developed where some of the kitchen staff were cleaning deep fat fryers at night before waiting for the cooking oil to properly cool down, which meant that they were handling hot oil.
Executive Member for Housing and Strategic Planning, David Hopps, said: “This case demonstrates the importance of companies making sure they have robust procedures in place that meet the necessary health and safety requirements. As a Council the protection and safety of all local employees is paramount. We will always work with businesses to help them improve and maintain standards, but as this case demonstrates, we will not hesitate to take action against those who put their employees and others at risk.
Clearly burns from hot oil can be very serious and, although this was a nasty accident, the chef’s injuries could have been significantly worse.
This prosecution sends out a strong message to other local businesses to make sure they put safe systems in place which allows their staff to do their jobs safely.”
- If you would like health and safety advice for your business, or would like to raise concerns about safety standards at any business, contact Trafford Council's Environmental Health Team on 0161 912 1377 or email environmental.health@trafford.gov.uk
Posted on Monday 12th June 2017