Northern Ireland poultry producer, Moy Park, has apologised to a worker who suffered life-changing crush injuries following an incident involving a forklift in 2017.
Armagh-based Moy Park Limited and and Victor Foster Poultry Services Limited faced prosecution following an investigation into the incident by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI).
On February 11, 2022, at Craigavon Crown Court, Moy Park Limited was fined £125,000, while Victor Foster Poultry Services Limited was fined £18,000 .
Moy Park told Agriland that what happened to the worker was “totally unacceptable”.
“We offer our sincerest apologies to the victim and his family with the reassurance that immediate steps were taken to prevent the chance of a recurrence,” a spokesperson said.
The HSENI investigation found that, on December 1, 2017, a 31-year-old male employee of Victor Foster Poultry Services Limited was working, along with others, in a commercial chicken house at a site in Moira, Co. Down.
The employee was struck by a forklift, receiving multiple crush injuries.
The investigation found that work was being carried out in this chicken house in near-dark conditions. It also found that Moy Park Limited had supplied workers with dark-blue overalls.
Both companies failed in their legal responsibilities to ensure safe working conditions in the chicken house where a forklift truck was required to operate in the same area as pedestrian workers, according to the HSENI.
In a statement, Moy Park said:
“In 2017, an employee of a former third-party supplier was injured in a collision on a farm involving a forklift truck, which was driven by another employee of the third-party company.
“Safety is a condition of our business and this also extends to the standards we expect from our professional sub-contractors.
“We fully accept the [court’s] ruling and hope the judgment can also act as a reminder to all businesses about their health-and-safety duties, which extend beyond their own sites and beyond their direct employees.”