Jiffy Bag manufacturer fined £123,000 for loss of thumb

Jiffy Packaging Company Limited was fined £123,509 (inc.costs) after a worker’s thumb was severed due to inadequate guarding over dangerous parts of machinery.

The circumstances were:

• The company’s risk assessment had been written nine years earlier by an employee untrained in creating risk assessments. 
• The assessment did not identify risks related to unguarded machinery or any control measures.
• Although the company had partially guarded the rollers and cogs of the machine with an interlocked guard, they failed to take adequate measures to prevent access to all dangerous parts of machinery.
• The company had previously been served with several HSE Improvement Notices highlighting machinery guarding issues
• A worker reached through an unguarded section in the frame of one of the machines to clean ink from a roller. 
• The rag he was using got caught in one of the motorised cogs, causing his hand to be pulled into the rotating cogs. 
• His left thumb was severed, resulting in him receiving skin grafts in hospital and being unable to work for 15 weeks

The HSE inspector said:
“The employee’s life changing injuries could have been prevented if a suitable and sufficient risk assessment had been completed and the correct control measures implemented. The day after the accident the company carried out a new risk assessment of the machine guarded the area in which the employee reached through with a clear plastic screen. The company followed this up with a written safe system of work relating to cleaning the rollers.’’