LTB 133/17 KFC fined £1m After Two Young Workers Were Burned – Another Warning to All Large National Employers

No. 133/2017

3 March 2017

Our Ref: C1/17

KFC fined £1m After Two Young Workers Were Burned – Another Warning to All Large National Employers Such as Royal Mail, BT, Capita, POL etc on Health & Safety:

To: All Branches

Dear Colleagues,

Following the report that high street Furniture Stores DFS Trading Limited had been fined £1 million after safety failings led to a worker receiving non-fatal neck and head injuries, another well know high street trader and fast food outlet Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has been hit with a Fine of almost £1 million after two young workers were burned with hot gravy and scarred.

In a prosecution at Teesside Crown Court brought by Stockton Council, KFC admitted criminal safety breaches at two of its restaurants and was ordered to pay £968,700 in fines and costs.

The Court heard that in the first case a 16 years old Worker received second degree burns after being scalded with hot gravy at the Teesside KFC restaurant in July 2014 and a second worker was injured in a similar incident with hot gravy at Stockton KFC Restaurant in December 2015.

Health and Safety Inspectors found a lack of Information, Instruction, Supervision and Training at the restaurants and first line managers ignored the company’s Safety Guidance.

The KFC kitchens were dangerous places where there were large vats of boiling fat, hot ovens and microwaves heating up Tubs of Gravy. There was a total lack of supervision as managers spent their time serving customers rather than managing staff safety (to those in Royal Mail – that sounds familiar). There was also inadequate provision of PPE safety equipment, such as heat resistant gauntlets.

Whilst the young injured worker was off work recovering from his burns injuries, KFC sacked him unfairly.

The judge said that “These were accidents waiting to happen and it’s the duty of management at every level to ensure that corners are not cut when it comes to safety.”

Footnote – New Health and Safety Sentences:

The significance of the DFS and KFC cases is the clear warning to all large employers such as Royal Mail, BT, Capita, POL and others. New Sentencing Council Guidelines to the Courts came into force in 2016 for Health and Safety Offences, described as the most dramatic change to health and safety legislation since the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act in 1974. Under the guidance large organisations that have been convicted of the serious offences, where they have flagrantly breached the law and created a high risk of serious harm, or where serious harm has actually been caused, can expect to receive a fine proportionate to the seriousness of the offence and to their financial means. For some time there has been concern that penalties imposed for health and safety offences and corporate manslaughter offences, particularly on large organisations, were too low and the approach to sentencing in the courts inconsistent. It is mandatory for courts to follow the guidelines for all sentences passed after 1 February 2016, regardless of whether or not the offence took place before that date. This heralds the start of an era where sentencing in health and safety offences will increase dramatically in order to have a real economic impact. Higher fines will also carry significant commercial and reputational consequences. Tough new sanctions will be a timely reminder that standards in health and safety management cannot slip. The new guidelines are also likely to result in an increase in custodial sentences for individuals who have committed a health and safety offence.

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment