Gloucestershire paper company fined for safety failings

Date:

21 January 2013

A Gloucestershire paper producer has been fined after an employee's hand was crushed in an unguarded machine as he tried to clean it.

The rollers which caused the worker's injuries

The 43 year-old worker, who does not wish to be named, received a serious crushing injury, cuts and bruising to his right hand when it was drawn between the rollers of a paper coating machine at Cotek Papers Ltd in Moreton-in-Marsh on 2 April 2012. He was unable to return to work for two months.

Cheltenham Magistrates' Court heard today (21 January) that an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) established that the rollers had to be cleaned periodically, sometimes several times a day, when the coating material is changed.

In normal operation the five rollers are protected by fixed guards. However, these guards had to be removed for cleaning and it was found that this system of work was unsafe and exposed employees to unnecessary injury risk.

An alternative system to clean the rollers should have been provided to prevent access to dangerous moving parts.

Cotek Papers Ltd of Draycott, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £1,483 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Ann Linden said:

"This incident could have been prevented had there been a safe system of work for cleaning the rollers. Cotek Papers Ltd clearly failed to ensure the safety of its employees, with painful consequences for the injured worker.

"The law clearly states that employers should take all reasonably practicable steps to protect employees from harm arising from their work. In the case of machinery, moving parts that could cause injury should be guarded or made safe so that people cannot come into contact with them. Non-routine operations such as cleaning or maintenance are not exempt from this requirement."

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 197 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR (South West)