Employment compensation pays £8,000 to man with injured hand

Employment compensation worth £8,000 has been awarded to a man whose hand was severely damaged due to lax health and safety regulations in the workplace.

Gary Burke, 45, lost one of his fingers and part of the other digits on his right hand, when it became trapped in faulty machinery at a factory dealing with resin and paper.

His personal injury claim was paid out because it was ruled the accident had been avoidable and was attributed to the employer.

Health and safety inspector Andrea Robbins found the problem had been ongoing for years and staff were in the habit of trying to fix it themselves.

She observed: "The incident could have easily been prevented if the company had implemented safe systems of work for fault finding and ensured [machine] guards were in place."

The Health and Safety Executive reveals 131,895 injuries to employees were reported last year, with those that were preventable by the business potentially entitling victims to compensation.