Engineering company fined after health and safety audits
An engineering company that deals with component products is fined after court proceedings sided with the HSE decisions. An employee was harmed due to a machine. The safety mechanism was disabled on the machine deliberately. This caused the 33-year-old worker to incur head injuries. The incident happened in August 2011. The court heard about the health and safety audits of the facility after the incident occurred. They also heard the employee was struck in the head when a moving part on a machine hit him. He suffered from a broken jaw along with cuts on his ear and face.
The day the incident occurred, the machine was programmed by a director of PG Components for a short cycle. The machine was enclosed and fitted with safety functions to stop the operations if the machine doors were opened. Yet, it was found that the health and safety mechanism was disabled. The safety feature was bypassed so that the operations could be quicker, but this posed a risk to those working with the machine. The employer did not follow proper duty of care but rather looked at the efficiency of operations in disabling the safety feature. It is a clear case of employer fault. This is why the company has been fined £11,200 along with over £5,000 in injury and additional costs to be paid. The incident did not have to happen and the worker did not have to suffer months of pain.
