In Court

Ikea fined after worker loses fingers

Alison Fava

Ikea Ltd has been fined £100,000 after a maintenance engineer was injured while fixing a roof fan.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety laws following the incident, which occurred at its Bristol branch on 21 November 2016. The worker suffered amputation of parts of two fingers while checking a fault to a fan on the roof of the building.

Investigating, Bristol City Council found that:

• The fan and eight others on the roof were not guarded;
• There was no adequate risk assessment in place for fault-finding or maintenance work of this nature;
• The engineer had received no health and safety training from Ikea for this work.

Senior managers from Ikea were in court and a letter from a board member was read out which expressed remorse for this incident and said that lessons taken from this case had been shared throughout their business.

Councillor Kye Dudd, Bristol City Council’s Cabinet Member for Energy, Waste and Regulatory Services, said: “The health and safety of employees should be a top priority for every employer.

We take reports of breaches very seriously and where appropriate we will investigate claims of poor practice.”

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