Council prosecution sees Pret a Manger hit with £800k fine after employee trapped in walk-in freezer
A Westminster City Council investigation has led to coffee and sandwich giant Pret a Manger being fined £800,000 after a member of staff was left trapped and fearing for her life in a walk-in freezer for 2.5 hours.
The chain pleaded guilty to an offence contrary to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Westminster Magistrates Court following an investigation by the local authority.
On 29 July 2021, a member of staff at the Victoria Coach Station shop became entrapped in a walk-in commercial freezer typically set to run at around -18 degrees, dressed only in jeans and a t-shirt.
She tried to keep warm by moving around, but after some time, she began to feel unwell from the cold, finding that her breathing was becoming restricted and that she was losing sensation in her thighs and feet, the council reported.
In a further attempt to keep warm, she tore up a cardboard box containing chocolate croissants to use as cover from the ventilator blowing out cold air but found that her hands were too cold and painful to break the box apart.
The worker was eventually found by a colleague in a state of distress and believing she was going to die. She was taken to hospital, where she was treated for suspected hypothermia.
Pret said a build-up of ice affected the internal freezer door release mechanism, causing the mechanism to fail. It has since organised counselling for the employee.
The council's investigation established that there was no suitable risk assessment for employees working in temperature-controlled environments.
The reporting system used by Pret revealed that there had been a number of call-outs relating to defective or frozen push buttons in the previous 19 months, including a previous occasion at the same remote kitchen in January 2020 when a worker had become entrapped in the walk-in freezer, having been unable to open the door from the inside. On that occasion, the internal door release mechanism was not working.
Pret a Manger pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay the council its full costs, in addition to a victim surcharge, within 28 days.
When passing her sentence, the District Judge decided on a starting point of £1.6m, which was reduced to £800,000 following credit for an early guilty plea and mitigation advanced on behalf of the company.
Cllr Aicha Less, Westminster's Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Communities, Public Protection and Licensing, said: "We hope the significant fine awarded in court acts as a warning to all businesses and prevents anything similar from ever happening again."
A spokesperson for Pret said the firm was "incredibly sorry" for its employee's experience.
The spokesperson added: "We have carried out a full review and have worked with the manufacturer to develop a solution to stop this from happening again."
Pret also said it has since revisited all of its existing systems and enhanced its processes where appropriate "and have cooperated fully with Westminster City Council's investigation".
Adam Carey
