A serious health and safety breach at the Holiday Inn Express in Dunstable has seen the responsible parties have to pay fines and costs totalling £16,830.
Central Bedfordshire Council have prosecuted The Gateway Hotel Dunstable (known as The Holiday Inn Express) and RBH Hospitality Management for failings under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, sections 2(1) and 3(1), following a breach in their legal duty of care towards a member of staff.
Both companies pleaded guilty at Peterborough Magistrates Court on Monday, November 9, 2021 that on Sunday, November 11, 2018, an employee was instructed by a manager to empty and clean the commercial oil fryer in the kitchen.
The member of staff picked up the filled container and was immediately burned from oil melting through the thin plastic container that had been provided for the job.
The individual dropped the container onto the floor, slipped and fell into the hot oil, receiving second and third degree burns to their arms, legs, and torso, covering approximately 10% of their body.
As a result, the employee is physically scarred from the incident and has not worked since, subsequently suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Additionally, in the same year the individual was working whilst an armed robbery took place at the hotel.
It is a legal duty to ensure the use of the hot oil fryer is risk assessed, control measures put in place, and staff trained and provided with written information and instructions.
The member of staff had not been instructed or trained fully in how to empty the oil fryer in a safe manner and during the emptying, the member of staff was not wearing adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to prevent burns and was given a plastic container to empty the oil into.
The investigation found that there was a possibility that the fryer had not been fully switched off from the previous evenings use and therefore had not cooled down as expected and there was no working thermometer on the fryer to indicate how hot the oil was.
