A COMPANY has been fined more than £1m after two if its employees were injured at work.
West Fraser (Europe) Ltd, formerly known as Norbord, manufactures wood-based products from sites across Scotland.
It has been the focus of two investigations by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after separate incidents occurred at its plant in Cowie, Stirlingshire in a six-month period.
In the first, utility operator Sean Gallagher, 29, suffered serious injuries after his leg became entangled in moving parts at the bottom of a storage bunker in January 2020.
In July of the same year, scaffolder David McMillan, 39, plunged more than 13 feet to the ground after a rusty plate gave way on a rooftop gantry.
The cases were heard at Stirling Sheriff CourtThe HSE launched investigations following both incidents and the firm pleaded guilty to several health and safety breaches related to them.
This month Stirling Sheriff Court heard that Mr Gallagher had been employed by the firm for a period of five years, spending the last two of which working at its biomass plant.
On January 20, he had noticed a fault on a bunker at the plant and initially entered the bunker to carry out an inspection, in accordance with the company’s safe system of work procedure.
However, when he identified further issues later into his shift, he entered the bunker again, but this time had not turned off the power.
He became entangled in the machinery and had to use his own phone to alert a control room operator.
He was eventually extracted from the machine and taken to hospital, with injuries including compound fractures to the tibia and fibula of his right leg.
As a result of the incident, the company installed a mesh guard across the bunker hatch, which is padlocked shut. It can only be unlocked by the supervisor once the system has been isolated.
The second incident, which happened on July 21, resulted in Mr McMillan suffering multiple fractures to his body, including his neck and ankle.
He had been working at height when a plate on the steel gantry gave way causing him to fall to the ground.
He spent 20 days in hospital and the subsequent HSE investigation found there was no maintenance schedule or system of checks for the gantry structure.
The steel flooring to the gantry was found to have been corroded in places, while some of the welds holding the plates in place were at the point of failure.
Following the incident, the gantry was immediately placed out of bounds before it was dismantled and removed from the site.
In relation to the incident involving Mr Gallagher, West Fraser (Europe) Ltd was fined £28,000.
For the second incident involving Mr McMillan the company was fined £1,040,000.
The court heard that the firm had been fined more than £2m in 2022 after another employee died after suffering serious burns at the same plant.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Stuart Easson, said: “This is the second time in five years this company has been handed a large fine for failing to protect workers.
“Although both men sustained very serious injuries in these latest incidents, both are lucky to be alive.
“We hope this outcome demonstrates that repeated failures of this nature are not acceptable.”
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