£45,000 cost of worker's arm burned in deep fat fryer (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

£45,000 cost of worker's arm burned in deep fat fryer

6:30am Wednesday 3rd June 2009 in Search By Jo Winrow

A city centre restaurant has been ordered to pay £45,000 in costs and fines after a kitchen worker suffered second degree burns when his hand slipped into a deep fat fryer.

Twenty-five year-old Czech immigrant David Kopecky had only been in the country a matter of days when he got the job at Frankie and Benny’s restaurant at the Leisure Exchange in Bradford.

He spoke little English and had undergone some health and safety training without really understanding it. He was eight days into the job when the accident happened in April 2006.

Yesterday the company behind the restaurant was ordered to pay a maximum fine of £20,000 for failing to protect the health, safety and welfare of its employees and a maximum £5,000 for failing to carry out a proper risk assessment of the job.

Magistrates also ordered that The Restaurant Group, which pleaded guilty to the breaches, pay costs to prosecutors Bradford Council of £22,430.87 and a £15 victim surcharge.

Prosecutor Michelle Brown told the court it was as a result of “systemic failings” across the company’s restaurants that saw Mr Kopecky injured. He needed immediate hospital treatment and was signed off work for eight weeks.

“The investigation into the accident exposed serious deficiencies in the company’s approach to health and safety of employees.”

It also followed a similar incident in 2004 involving a Portuguese teenager, which reached court shortly after Mr Kopecky’s accident in 2006, she said. The company was fined £18,000 in total that time.

“The failings which formed the basis of the 2006 conviction are almost identical to those in the present case. Moreover the 2006 conviction also concerned a kitchen employee suffering burn injuries, having received inadequate instruction and training.”

She described how both foreign workers who spoke little English were left to receive health and safety instruction verbally with the company relying on the kitchen manager to train staff.

A computer training package was introduced after the first accident, but it was still in English, leaving Mr Kopecky using guess work.

Stephen Walsh, for the Restaurant Group, described how health and safety training had been overhauled since the accidents, and that external consultants were employed to regularly assess each restaurant.

Fresh risk assessments had been carried out and staff either cleaned the deep fat fryers after they had been switched off and cooled down, or they used lids to cover the oil compartments.

In addition he said that since the 2004 accident, health and safety information had been translated into both Portuguese and Polish as the majority of their foreign workers were from the two countries.

He also admitted that the company’s board had been unaware of the first incident and only learned of it when the Council issued a summons in January 2006.

Bradford Council’s assistant director for environmental health, John Major, said: “This was the second incident at Frankie and Benny’s in a short space of time and both were very similar.

“We would urge all businesses that employ people whose first language is not English to ensure health and safety training is given in a way that is clearly understood by workers."