Dangers for Slaughterers and Meat Processors

Slaughterhouses and meat-processing factories are among the most dangerous workplaces in Britain. Workers must handle sharp equipment at high speed in challenging conditions and often work under intense time pressure. At the less severe end of the spectrum, there are cuts and repetitive strain injuries, but there are also many cases of severe lacerations, crush injuries, amputations, and fatalities.

The number of well-known corporations that have been brought to court charged with Health and Safety failings is truly shocking. Theirs is a workforce that is uniquely exposed to physical danger and yet they are frequently let down. And it is not just the life-changing impact of physical injuries that workers must deal with; they also get little support for the serious psychological impacts that are also commonly suffered by those working within this industry.

Among the injuries are:

Two workers died from asphyxiation after a nitrogen build-up at Banham Poultry’s slaughterhouse in Norfolk.²

One worker suffered such an enormous electric shock at Bernard Matthews’ meat processing plant that his lawyers described both his shoulders being fractured and dislocated.³

Another worker sustained a pierced left lung, several broken ribs, four fractured vertebrae, and a spinal bleed, and was left paralysed at the Bernard Matthews’ factory.⁴

Cranswick was prosecuted and fined for safety breaches after a worker fell and fractured his skull.⁵

Previously, Cranswick was fined after two workers had a hand and fingertips severed by machinery that was unsafe. One man’s hand had to be amputated after it became caught in the rotating knives of an industrial meat tenderiser.⁶

In 2019, 2 Sisters was fined £1.4 million after a worker’s torso was crushed while unblocking a machine in a chicken slaughterhouse. The man sustained a punctured lung, fractures to his back, and several fractured ribs. Investigators found it was common practice to clear blockages while the machine was still running.⁷

That same year, 2 Sisters was fined £274,000 after two workers sustained serious hand injuries in separate incidents. Both men had a finger severed.⁸

Karro Foods was fined £1.8 million in 2019 after two of its employees sustained serious injuries – including fractured ribs, a punctured lung, a fractured skull, and injuries which caused problems with balance, memory, and mental health – after falling through a roof that the company knew to be fragile.⁹

In 2022, Moy Park was fined £125,000 after a worker was crushed by a forklift and left with life-changing injuries.¹⁰