Materials firm fined £4,000 for hand injury

A Kent plasterboard company has been fined £4,000 after a worker trapped his finger in machinery.

The incident occurred on 18 December 2007, when a group of Knauf's employees were required to clean the rollers on the plasterboard production machine. The guards were removed and the machinery switched on, with the rollers rotating at production speed.

An employee's finger became trapped, causing serious and long-term injuries to his hand, and affecting his ability to perform basic tasks in day-to-day life.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that no suitable health and safety risk assessment had been carried out prior to the cleaning taking place.

Knauf UK GMBH pleaded guilty to breaching the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations. The firm was fined £4,000, with £3,204 costs.

HSE inspector Jan Combs said that the conviction was a result of the company not thinking through all elements of their work activity.

She added: “If a proper health and safety risk assessment had been carried out and acted upon, this incident could have been avoided. They ignored basic health and safety rules.”