A male worker could well lay claim to an accident compensation payout following a serious workplace accident.
The man was employed by Crown Chicken Ltd and was working as a supervisor at its factory in Diss when the incident took place in July of last year.
He was carrying out a maintenance task alongside one of his colleagues, which involved carrying cladding boards up a ladder.
In this instance, the ladder was not secured with any safety fastenings and slipped whilst the man was standing on it. As a result, he fell two and a half metres to the ground and broke several vertebrae in his spine.
The man was also forced to take six months off work following the workplace accident, in a bid to recover from his injuries. He has since returned to work, but has only been able to carry out light duties rather than returning to his previous tasks.
Following the incident, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carried out a thorough investigation and found that Crown Chicken Ltd had breached several health and safety regulations and failed to ensure the safety of its workers. The firm was found to have failed to train its staff members on how to use ladders in a safe manner.
The HSE levied a fine of £3,500 on Crown Chicken Ltd as a result of the health and safety breaches, and reiterated that falls from height and ladder-related accidents continue to be a major cause of work injuries in the UK.