Packaging company fined after work accident

A packaging company is Essex has been fined after a female worker's hand was injured.

Lynda Jackson, a 57-year-old line supervisor, was using cleaning paper to dry machine parts at CBT Packaging Ltd, when her hand became trapped between two glue rollers and was pulled into the machine.

Two of Ms Jackson's finger tips were severed during the accident.

An investigation launched by the Health and Safety Executive found that although the company's policy was not to clean the machine while it was running, standard practice was to ignore this.

Moreover, staff were not given appropriate training on how to clean the machine safely and the guard for the machine had not correctly been maintained.

Inappropriate training is a common cause of accidents in the workplace and it is the duty of businesses to ensure that all workers are competent in those tasks they are required to perform.

CBT Packaging LTD was fined £12,000 and forced to pay costs of £4,971.45 after being found guilty of breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Published by Jessica Shervin