A fine of almost a million euros to a well-known British coffee chain. The case concerns a waitress who was locked in a cold room with a temperature of 18 degrees below zero in a London department store. The freezer door had accidentally closed behind her, and it was only two and a half hours later that a coworker spotted her and released her. But let’s go in order. The episode took place in 2021 at a well-known British chain’s cafe, now owned by a German group, near London Victoria station. The woman was rescued by ambulance and when the waitress finally came out of the freezer she was called to the scene: She was being treated for suspected hypothermia. The woman, who was constantly moving and trying to warm up, wearing only jeans and a T-shirt, lost sensation in her hands and feet. She tried to cover herself with the cardboard torn from the air conditioner, but she could not move her hands and break them.
He would have died if he had been in the freezer for too long. Already in January 2020, another worker was stuck in the cold room as he could not open the door from the inside. In this case, the door opening mechanism did not work. Now a Westminster Magistrates Court judge has fined 800,000 pounds, or about 930,000 euros, “not as compensation to the employee, but as punishment to the company, which must have security systems and controls to prevent such risks.” “, reads motivations.
The coffee shop chain, which has apologized for the incident, has since taken precautions in all of its cafes to ensure that no one is in danger of being locked in one of the giant refrigerators where food is stored.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
