Waste firm pleads guilty to breaking workplace safety laws in connection with employee's death
A waste management firm has entered a signed plea of guilty to breaking safety laws in connection with the death of an employee in a workplace accident.
Key Waste Management was summonsed to appear at Dublin District Court on health and safety charges.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed trial on indictment. The case had been adjourned until today for book of evidence to be served.
However, a signed plea of guilty was furnished to the court by Ronan Kennedy SC, for the company.
Judge Bryan Smyth agreed to a request from State solicitor Mairead White to send the firm forward to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for sentencing, on July 31 next.
The case follows an investigation by the Health and Safety Authority.
The company faces charges under section eight of the Health, Safety and Welfare at Work Act 2005.
It is accused of failing to provide a safe system of work, which was without risk to health.
It allegedly failed to safely manage work activities, specifically the operation of a Manitou Telehandler machine and the floor picking of waste by pedestrian workers in processing waste in a sorting shed.
The firm allegedly allowed Mr Boguslaw Szbisty and another employee work alongside a telehandler when there was no control measures in place in the shed separating them from vehicles, on March 18, 2016, at the firm’s premises at Greenhills Road, Walkinstown, Dublin 12.
As consequence, Mr Szbisty suffered personal injury and died, charges state.
The firm is a major provider of the domestic wheelie bin and refuse bag waste collection services.
