A tissue manufacturer in Oldham has been fined £10,000 after a worker lost the tops of two fingers in some machinery. Rose Tissues Ltd processes and prints toilet paper and kitchen roll at its plant in Hollinwood, Greater Manchester. The firm was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident in May 2012, which left the worker needing to spend four days in hospital undergoing surgery to his hand.
Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard how the 35-year-old had been trying to stop paper sticking to a print roller at the firm’s plant in Hollinwood, Greater Manchester. The man, who is from Oldham, was attempting to clean it with a cloth while the seven-metre-wide machine was operating, but the cloth became stuck between two rotating rollers, and dragged the man’s right hand in with it.
An investigation by the HSE found that at least one year prior to the incident taking place, two guards on the machine had been removed, which should have been protecting workers’ hands from being trapped by the rollers. There had been no formal checks carried out on the machine to ensure that the guards were in place and they were later found in a storage container in the factory. The HSE also found that cut-out switches and electronic safety locks had been intentionally bypassed to let the machine carry on running.
The company was fined £10,000 after pleading guilty to breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1988 and ordered to pay £8,000 in prosecution costs.
Stuart Kitchingman, HSE inspector, said after the hearing: “The risk of workers’ hands being dragged in between two rollers is well known in the printing industry, but the company failed to carry out checks on its machines to make sure guards were in place.
“As a result, an employee has suffered an injury to his hand that will affect him for the rest of his life.”
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