Molson Coors fined £45K for safety issues

Molson Coors has been fined £45,000 and ordered to pay £76,716 in costs after pleading guilty to two cases of health and safety breaches at its Burton brewery site during 2008.

The brewer said the incidents were "a matter of great regret" and said it had invested in excess of £1m in improving safety across its breweries in the UK during 2009 and 2010. The brewer said it had also instigated a cultural shift within the business so that health and safety issues are taken seriously and potential problems reported as soon as they arise.

In one incident Peter Jackson, 64, a delivery driver was hit by a forklift truck on 20 May 2008. His foot and left wrist were both fractured and he has not been able to return to work since the incident. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the firm had failed to follow previous advice from HSE to devise and implement a safe workplace transport system after an inspector visited the site in December 2007.

Molson Coors pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and was fined £31,000 and ordered to pay £33,042 costs by Cannock Magistrates' Court.

In the second incident the brewery was fined after three men suffered serious chemical burns when 6,000 litres of caustic soda erupted from a faulty valve in June 2008. The three sub-contractors were repairing a valve on a line running from a detergent tank when they were drenched in a liquid jet of caustic soda. Martin Soanes, 53, was temporarily blinded and one of his colleagues, who has asked not to be identified, suffered 25 per cent burns. The third man suffered minor skin burns and irritation to his eyes.

Cannock Magistrates' Court heard the men had not been given adequate instructions or appropriate personal protective equipment. Molson Coors pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £43,674 costs.