Twelve pallets, one fire exit and a 17-year-old
At 11:05 on a Saturday a twelve-pallet delivery arrives at a neighbourhood supermarket. The back store is 60 m² and already holds the week's promotion stock. The driver must unload within 30 minutes.
The store manager, on the phone to head office, tells Owen, the 17-year-old part-timer, to 'stack the water pallets by the back door and get it done before the lunch rush'. The back door is the staff fire exit and opens onto a shared yard. Each water pallet weighs about 600 kg and needs the electric pallet truck.
At 11:15 a jar of tomato sauce falls in aisle 3 and breaks. A customer walks through the spill, slips, and is not hurt but complains loudly. The mop and the wet-floor sign are locked in the cleaner's cupboard, and the cleaner is on a break until 11:45. Two customers are filming with their phones.
On duty there are one assistant manager, one cashier, Owen on the shop floor and a security guard at the front entrance. At 11:20 the alarm panel shows a fault on the back-door contact.
1. Rank the three issues on the floor - the blocked fire exit, the spill, the back-door alarm fault - by priority. Give the immediate action for each and say who does it.
Read the worked answer
Priority is set by risk = likelihood × severity, and severity rises sharply when an escape route or a person is involved.
1. The blocked back door (highest). A fire exit obstructed by 600 kg pallets is a life-safety hazard: likelihood is low but severity is fatal, and it is an offence to obstruct an escape route. The assistant manager should immediately stop Owen, move the pallets clear using a trained operator, keep the exit and its approach completely clear, and take photos of the corrected state. Owen must not be asked to operate the electric pallet truck; the assistant manager does it or calls a trained colleague.
2. The spill (high, because it has already caused an incident). The cashier, who can leave the till for a moment while the queue is short, stands over the spill and warns customers away, then fetches the key or asks the manager for it. The assistant manager checks the customer who slipped: ask if she is hurt, offer first aid, note her name and details, record it in the accident book, keep the broken jar and photographs, and preserve the two phone videos as potential evidence by asking politely for contact details. Never admit liability or blame the customer.
3. The alarm fault (medium). It does not endanger anyone in the next ten minutes but it does reduce security and may mean the door can be opened without alerting anyone. The assistant manager notes the time and fault code, keeps the back door closed and locked where possible, and reports it to the keyholder and the alarm company the same day, logging the call.
The sequencing point the examiner is looking for: fire exit first, injured person and spill second, security fault third - and the manager's phone call to head office is not a reason to delay any of them.
2. Owen says he does not want to move the pallets. Was he right, and what must the employer do about young workers in this store?
Read the worked answer
He was right, and he must not be disciplined for it.
Three reasons. First, the pallets are in front of a fire exit. Obstructing an escape route is a hazard regardless of who creates it, and an instruction to create that hazard is not a lawful instruction to follow.
Second, Owen is 17. A young worker must be protected by a specific risk assessment before being given the work, and must not be asked to do work beyond his physical capacity or to use work equipment - including an electric pallet truck - unless he has been trained, assessed as competent and is supervised. A 600 kg pallet moved by a powered truck in a cramped yard is exactly the kind of task that requires an authorised, trained operator.
Third, the instruction was given under time pressure by someone who had not checked the exit or Owen's authorisation, which is precisely the situation the assessment exists to prevent.
What the employer must do
- Complete and record a risk assessment covering young workers: which tasks they may and may not do, weight limits, equipment, supervision.
- Inform Owen and his parents or guardian of the risks and the protections before he starts such work.
- Train and authorise named staff on the electric pallet truck, and keep the authorisation list at the store.
- Make clear in writing that any worker may stop work and refuse a task they believe is unsafe, without detriment.
- Investigate why a manager gave the instruction, and address it as a management failure, not a trainee failure.
3. The customer who slipped says she will report the store. What must be done in the next hour, and what must change in the next week?
Read the worked answer
Next hour
- Check the customer again, offer first aid and, if she declines, record that she declined. Ask whether she wants anyone called.
- Record the incident in the accident book while details are fresh: time, place, what spilled, whether a sign was out, who was present, what she was wearing on her feet, and her account in her own words.
- Photograph the spill, the aisle, the locked cupboard and the absence of signage before anything is moved or cleaned.
- Keep the broken jar and the cleaning materials involved, and note the cleaner's break times.
- Take names and contact details of the two customers filming and of the cashier as a witness.
- Give the customer the store's contact point and the insurer's claims route; apologise for the incident without admitting legal liability or speculating about fault.
- Notify the store manager and the health and safety responsible person the same day, and report it under the company's accident-reporting procedure.
Next week
- Move the mop, bucket and wet-floor signs out of a locked cupboard, or give every supervisor a key: a spill kit that cannot be reached in under a minute is not a control.
- Add a written spill procedure: guard the area first, clean second, sign always, and never leave a spill unattended to fetch equipment.
- Brief all staff on the procedure and record who attended.
- Review the delivery routine so pallets can never be staged at the back door, including a marked keep-clear zone.
- Repair the back-door contact and confirm it with the alarm company in writing.
- Review the incident with the team to check the fix worked, and keep the record for the insurer and any enforcement visit.