Baking company fined after multiple incidents

A baking company has been fined twice for two separate incidents at their production facility after two workers had the hands damaged by machinery.

Bells of Lazonby Limited was fined £40,000 after the first incident and £30,000 after the second. The organisation pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

Multiple incidents

The court heard details of the two incident which took place on the 26 January and the 29 March 2016 respectively.

The first incident occurred when the first worker lost the top of the middle finger on their right hand after it was caught by the moving blade of a dough-dividing machine.

The second incident occurred when a worker’s left index finger made contact with the cutting jaws of a wrapping machine. The worker did not lose the finger.

Importance of checking and assessing

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company failed to equip the machinery with the correcting guarding to avoid incidents like this occurring.

Speaking after the hearing HSE inspector Leona Cameron said: “This case demonstrates the importance of checking and assessing all dangerous equipment and machinery to prevent injuries to employees operating such machinery.”

Approaches to managing the risks associated Musculoskeletal disorders

In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, we hear from Matt Birtles, Principal Ergonomics Consultant at HSE’s Science and Research Centre, about the different approaches to managing the risks associated with Musculoskeletal disorders.

Matt, an ergonomics and human factors expert, shares his thoughts on why MSDs are important, the various prevalent rates across the UK, what you can do within your own organisation and the Risk Management process surrounding MSD’s.

Listen now!