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The employee, from Carmarthen, was working with a colleague for WA Bowler Ltd on the installation of a beam and block floor at Hillside Care Home in the Uplands area of Swansea on 10 March 2010.
The man, who does not want his name disclosed, was at one end of a 174kg beam, and his co-worker was at the other end. They were using lifting straps to manually hoist the 5m-long beam into position. When his colleague accidentally dropped his end of the beam onto the concrete beneath, the victim’s end was thrust upwards into his groin. He was thrown upwards and suffered a hairline fracture to his pelvis as well as paralysis to the nerve endings in his left leg.
Health & Safety Executive (HSE) prosecutors told Swansea Crown Court that WA Bowler had been contracted by another firm to carry out work at the site.
The court was told that the company had not provided suitable equipment for the job to be done safely, which resulted in the employees undertaking potentially dangerous manual handling works.
WA Bowler Limited of Highmead House, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. It was fined £3,000 with costs of £4,847.35.
Speaking after the hearing on Friday, HSE inspector Hayley Healey said: "The company neglected its legal duty to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of their employees.
"Injuries as a result of manual handling are widespread and in this case it was entirely foreseeable that serious injury could occur. The degree of risk here was particularly high in terms of the weight involved.
"The employer failed to provide equipment which would allow the job to be done safely and, as a result, a worker suffered significant injuries in what was a completely preventable incident."
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