Cleaner falls to her death washing windows at Agrofert plant: labour inspectorate found violations by staffing agency, but no case has ever been opened

The Czech State Labour Inspection Office has found violations in the work of the staffing agency Intervacantion, which had placed a 19-year-old Bulgarian woman who died in May 2025 at the "Vodňanská drůbež" poultry plant in Modřice. Despite the findings of the inspection, no administrative proceedings have been launched against the agency — almost a year after the tragedy.

According to inspectorate spokesman Richard Kolibáč, the inspection found that the agency had failed in its duty to provide workers with sufficient and adequate safety and occupational health training. "Administrative proceedings have not yet been initiated," he said.

Kolibáč attributed the delay to the heavy workload of inspectors: around twenty thousand inspections are carried out each year, and the law allows three years to open proceedings. Companies are also given legally set deadlines to submit requested documents. At the "Vodňanská drůbež" plant itself, however, the inspection found no violations.

The tragedy occurred on 17 May 2025. The 19-year-old Bulgarian woman, who was employed through the Intervacantion agency and temporarily assigned to the "Vodňanská drůbež" plant in Modřice (part of the Agrofert holding), fell from the second floor while washing windows and died on the spot.

Lukáš Dvořáček, spokesman for the South Moravian rescue service, said the incident involved a fall from height: "Unfortunately, we could not help the woman — she had already died before we arrived."

Police investigated the case on suspicion of death caused by negligence but found no evidence of third-party guilt. "During the investigation, we found nothing indicating that another person was at fault. The case was therefore closed," said police unit head Pavel Švab.

The circumstances of the incident were previously examined by the outlet Voxpot. Based on conversations with employees and experts, journalists questioned the version of events suggesting the young woman had acted entirely on her own initiative, pointing to possible shortcomings in how foreign workers hired through agencies were managed.

Both Intervacantion and the "Vodňanská drůbež" plant maintain that washing windows was not part of the cleaners' duties, and that the employee had reportedly undergone proper safety training — contrary to the labour inspectorate's findings. However, according to Voxpot, the interpreter who assisted during that training session was actually an employee who works in the company's sausage production department.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz