Earlier this month discount supermarket chain Aldi was fined £1 million and ordered to pay £70,000 in costs after a delivery driver's foot was crushed by a powered pallet truck.
The prosecuting solicitor has now revealed that Aldi had submitted 20 RIDDOR reports under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations SI 2013/1471, to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following similar incidents in the years prior to the conviction.
Natalie Osei, a litigation solicitor acting on behalf of Amber Valley Borough Council, revealed that Aldi did not revise its on-the-job training regime until environmental health officers served the supermarket chain with an improvement notice five months after the incident.
Derby Crown Court heard that newly-hired Aldi delivery drivers would simply shadow more experienced workers to pick up all elements of their job, such as how to deliver new stock to retail stores and how to use equipment. The retailer did not have a standardised training programme in place to ensure that all drivers had the necessary skills to operate the equipment.
Amber Valley Borough Council stressed that the discount retailer should have implemented a formal and standardised training programme to minimise health and safety risks.
Aldi has now implemented a new training programme however Osei revealed that a different worker was involved in a similar accident prior to its implementation.
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