While the incident was outside of the construction industry, the case – heard by Leicester Magistrates' Court last week – serves as a timely reminder of the importance of using the right equipment, and the dangers of using the wrong ones.
On 4 January 2011 Jaisukh Chandarana, a partner in a Leicester food company, instructed an 18-year-old worker to unload barrels, stored in layers with plywood separating each layer, from the container at Simtom Food Products factory in Merry Lees.
The teenager was lifted on a pallet on a fork lift truck to climb onto a stack of pallets near the container doors. From there he entered the container and dragged the barrels onto the pallet held at height by the fork lift.
While stepping from one pallet to another, he fell two metres to the ground, resulting in severe bruising to his abdomen and sprains to his shoulder and wrist. As a result he was off work for a several weeks.
Mr Chandarana, 57, of Hastings Road, Kirby Muxloe, pleaded guilty in court to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £7,500 with costs of £1,380.
After the hearing HSE inspector Alison Cook said: "Had a safe system of unloading been used then this incident would not have happened. Lifting people up on pallets on a fork lift is utterly unacceptable because of the potential consequences of a fall. It was pure luck that a young man was not more seriously injured.
"Since the incident Mr Chandarana has contracted out unloading to a firm with a level loading dock to eliminate the risk of a fall. It is a pity someone had to be hurt for this to be chosen."
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