Company fined £230,000 after worker loses hand

Health & Safety update 07/12/2011

A major European food business producing raw and prepared chicken products has been fined £230,000 after two incidents at its Suffolk factory, one of which led to an employee losing his right hand.

An employee was helping a member of his team to clean equipment at the plant. His hand was pulled into two rotating cogs and crushed. A safety guard had been removed from the machinery.

A month later, a fork lift driver was left in charge of a pre-slaughter area for chickens. He entered an enclosure to clear a blockage in the system and his arm was trapped and broken. The company had fitted a by-pass device to over-ride a safety control that would have prevented this happening.

The Company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) over the incidents. It admitted two counts under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined a total of £230,000 and ordered to pay costs of £24,350.

After the hearing, an HSE Inspector said, "Both these incidents were wholly avoidable. The employees were failed by the company's lack of proper training, inadequate assessment of risks, absence of safe working practices and effective measures stopping access to dangerous equipment. One of them will have to live with the consequences of someone else's mistakes for the rest of his life. HSE will not hesitate to take companies, big or small, to court and seek tough penalties when it finds them taking a lax attitude to their workers' safety."

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