The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted a company after an employee’s fingers were crushed in a packing machine.

In November 2007, Ludmila Jurkevica, 27, from King’s Lynn in Norfolk was working for Tulip Limited at their factory in Beveridge Way, King’s Lynn. Ms Jurkevica tried to clear a blockage in the machine and in doing so sustained injuries to her fingers.

In June 2009, Tulip Limited of Seton House, Warwick pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – and admitted failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machine and failing to make a sufficient risk assessment of the Multivac machine involved in the incident.

The court heard that English was not Miss Jurkevica’s first language – and the HSE investigation found that the company had not provided sufficient training and the machine did not have the guards required by law.

On Wednesday (04/11/09) at Norwich Crown Court, Tulip Limited was fined £65,000 and ordered to pay costs of £29,523.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Steven Gill said that the incident could have been avoided had the company checked the safety of the machine – and had taken precautions to ensure the safety of its workers.

‘Machines like these can be incredibly dangerous and cause serious injury,’ said Mr Gill. ‘No company should take these risks lightly.

‘The defects in the guarding had been identified in the company’s own safety audit reports, but nothing was done about them. Companies should have systems in place for not only identifying defects, but ensuring that any defects are remedied,’ Mr Gill added.

He also advised that companies should have systems in place to ensure that workers – including workers whose first language was not English – had ‘appropriate instruction and training’ in using machinery.

© 5r1 Limited 2009