Co Kildare-based Flanagan Concrete Products Limited has been fined €80,000 in relation to the death of one of its staff in May 2021.
Donatas Jokubauskas (32) became caught in the tail drum of a conveyor belt system at the company’s facility in Feighcullen, Rathangan.
The emergency services were called and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Lithuanian national was living in the area with his wife and one year-old child at the time.
Flanagan Concrete Products pleaded guilty at Naas Circuit Court on Thursday to offences under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005, and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007.
The offences related to the firm’s failure to ensure the machinery involved was not used while a trip wire was inoperative and that safety guard rails were not easily removed or rendered inoperative.
Judge Elva Duffy imposed the €80,000 fine.
Health and Safety Authority (HSA) chief executive Mark Cullen said employers had a responsibility to ensure their workers were safe when working with and around machinery.
“Employers must ensure that all safety protective devices are in good working order and that employees are not put in danger by unsafe work practices whereby safety devices are inoperable,” he said.
“All work activities involving machinery must be risk-assessed and the appropriate safety control measures must be put in place to ensure a safe system of work for all workers.
“Serious injuries and fatal incidents such as this tragic death are preventable.”
The case is the third this year in which a significant fine was imposed in cases taken on foot of a HSA investigation, according to the authority’s website.
Last month, the Meade Potato Company was fined €150,000 at Trim Circuit Court in relation to a June 2022 incident in which the arm of one of its workers became caught in machinery. The worker was left with life-changing injuries.
In January the Kildare Chilling Company was fined €225,000 at Naas Circuit Court over a May 2020 incident in which packer Binak Cokaj, a 54-year-old Albanian national, died when the lid of a vacuum packing machine closed and struck him on the head while he was cleaning it.
The same firm was previously fined €400,000 in relation to a 2018 workplace fatality. On that occasion, Alexandru Coceban, a 22-year-old from Moldova, was struck and crushed by a forklift truck.
A total of 58 people died in workplace accidents last year, up from 36 in 2024, the HSA said.
The agriculture sector consistently accounts for the highest number of workplace deaths, 23 last year, followed by construction.