Textile firm sentenced for health and safety breaches
A textile firm located in Bradford has received their sentence. The sentence was given due to an employee injury that has left the individual with a long-term problem. The worker was on the job for only a month when his hand was injured. The employee was 30 at the time of the 2011 incident. He was not working with machines but with a wool sorter. He did not have health and safety training for the machines or any other machine training. He was still asked to clean some debris from the machine trays and to get the wool untangled. This meant he was working around a machine for which he had no training.
While working on the task given to him his hand became caught and dragged into the machine and then became stuck. The glove shredded and the pressure created a loss of feeling to his hand. Luckily, he was able to get it out before he lost the hand completely. He did sustain severe cuts from the tip of his index finger on the right hand to his forearm. The damage also harmed a nerve. The health and safety audits conducted because of the incident led to the court proceedings wherein the company is now being fined. The fine is £5,000 and almost £3,000 in additional costs. The worker was not trained and therefore should not have been around the machine, making the incident an avoidable one.
