Packaging company prosecuted after worker injured
An Essex packaging company has been fined after one of its employees sustained a serious hand injury on an unguarded laminating machine. Gary Dean had the skin on the palm of his left hand torn away in the incident on 26th September 2011. He was using a glue laminating machine when he noticed an indent mark on […]
New figures published for fatally injured workers
New official statistics have shown that the number of workers fatally injured in Britain last year remains largely unchanged. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has released provisional data for April 2011 to March 2012, which shows 173 workers were killed – down two from the previous year. The rate of fatal injury remains the […]
Equipment supplier fined after worker’s hand severed
A worker from County Durham had his hand severed while carrying out maintenance on glass cutting machinery a court heard. The 34-year-old maintenance technician was investigating a fault on a new tilt table with a colleague. He was on his hands and knees while trying to ascertain the cause of the fault and had activated […]
Waste company prosecuted after worker loses arm
A waste management and recycling company has been fined for safety failings after a worker lost most of his arm on an unguarded conveyor system at a Kent quarry. Dartford Magistrates heard that a conveyor belt used to transfer waste into a sorting shed was juddering and virbrating, making sorting difficult, after a driving roller […]
First corporate manslaughter conviction in NI
A farm company in Northern Ireland (NI) has been fined a record £187,500, plus £13,000 costs for health and safety failings that led to the death of 45-year-old employee Robert Wilson. The company is the first in Northern Ireland to be convicted under new Corporate Manslaughter legislation. Under this legislation, companies and organisations can be […]
Healthcare provider fined after worker injury
A private healthcare provider managing a hospital in Ipswich has been fined for safety failings after an employee suffered a fractured kneecap. Mrs Shelagh Allen was working in the clinic room of a ward, which was being wet-mopped by a housekeeper during the ward’s busiest period. Mrs Allen went into the room after completing a […]
Compensation for workplace accidents
InjuriesBoard.ie has published a review of workplace accidents in Ireland in 2011 that shows compensation totalling €22.5million (2010: €25.1million) was awarded in respect of 830 (2010: 889 awards) personal injury workplace claims. Accidents in the workplace accounted for 8.4% of all personal injury awards in 2011, compared to 11% of all awards in 2010. The […]
Workers’ Memorial Day
On Saturday 28th April, unions and safety campaigners around the world will be marking Workers’ Memorial Day and remembering the two million men and women who die every year as a result of work-related accidents and diseases. In the UK over 20,000 people die prematurely every year as a result of injuries or accidents caused […]
Recycling firm fined for subjecting workers to lead poisoning
An Edmonton-based recycling company has been fined for failing to protect employees working with lead. The company had bought and was stripping some lead-sheathed copper cabling from British Telecom after the network began to be changed from copper to fibre optic cable. An investigation carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that […]
Call centre workers suffer
One in four call centre agents suffer voice problems because managers are failing to properly protect their health, a health and safety body has said. A new study, commissioned by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) found that call handlers had suffered one or more of a range of ill-effects because of their […]