Carlsberg … perhaps the poorest safety record ever

Brewer’s Fredericia location cited for a record number of serious safety violations

Apr 30, 2012

Carlsberg had major safety problems at its brewery in Fredericia last year. The website fagbladet3f.dk reports that the company was cited for 12 major safety violations in 2011, setting a Danish record for the highest number of possibly dangerous conditions found in a single workplace at one time.

The national working environment authority Arbejdstilsynet demanded that the company immediately correct the violations, which included explosion risks and dangers of workers falling down a lift shaft and getting body parts caught in machinery.

Inspectors from Arbejdstilsynet said one of the most serious violations involved gas bottles stored around the facility that were not secured against possibly falling over and exploding. There was also a risk that employees could fall four metres down the shaft of a lift that had been in use for four years without the proper safety screens in place.

Ivan Nielsen, the senior shop steward at Carlsberg’s shipping terminal in Fredericia, said that company management had been warned about the dangerous conditions.

“Many of the things that the inspectors criticised we had pointed out to management earlier,” Nielsen told fagbladet3f.dk. “Nothing was ever done about them.”

Carlsberg's Fredericia shipping terminal was cited for seven violations while the brewery itself received five. Inspectors said that some of the machinery at the plant presented a great risk of bodily harm.

Company officials were quick to say that they would fix the violations.

“We are pleased that these problems have been brought to our attention," Jens Bekke, a spokesperson for Carlsberg, told The Copenhagen Post. “We place a high priority on safety and have reduced the number of accidents in 2011 to 11, down from 21 in 2010.”

Bekke said the company has fixed eleven of the twelve problems that Arbejdstilsynet pointed out and that the last one will be addressed before the summer.

This is the first time Arbejdstilsynet has visited Carlsberg’s Fredericia location since the company moved all of its major brewing operations there in 2008.