Jedburgh factory fined £100,000 after worker's hand crushed in machine without guard on

Emtelle UK, a manufacturer of plastic tubing for telecommunications and carrying water, pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety laws at its plant in Jedburgh’s Oxnam Road in November 2016.

The company admitted that the employee, left with what are described as serious hand injuries, was not properly trained to operate the socket machine involved, used to cut smaller pieces of piping, and wasn’t adequately supervised either.

The machine’s guard was lying on the floor, having fallen off or been removed, and Jedburgh Sheriff Court heard that the 33-year-old worker, while trying to catch a falling piece of piping, exposed his left hand to part of a clamp, resulting in him sustaining two broken fingers and a crush injury causing shattered bones and other wounds.

He was in hospital for a week after that accident and off work until the end of January this year, initially returning only to carry out office duties but now, as of May, back at his old job.

Emtelle’s lawyer, Ann Bonomy, said the company regretted the accident and that senior managers would have been in court to explain further but for Covid-19-enforced restrictions on attendance.

She pointed out that the man had volunteered to operate the machine but should not have done so, explaining: “His enthusiasm should not have been confused for competence.”

She added that there had been several health and safety changes at the factory since the accident, with new safeguards in place and the company no longer cutting pipes to make them shorter, eradicating the possibility of such an accident happening again.

Ms Bonomy said the culpability of the firm was no higher than medium and could even be regarded as low.

Sheriff Robert Fife fined Emtelle, a multinational firm with its British headquarters in Hawick said to have an annual turnover of £114m, £100,000 for breaching 1998’s provision and use of work equipment regulations 1998 and the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act.