A 23-yr-old worker suffered serious injury during an accident at work when his hand was pulled into a metalworking lathe.
The employee of Macduff Shipyards Limited based in Aberdeenshire, was working in the precision engineering department when the incident occurred on 19 March 2013.
He had been wearing gloves while working on a lathe. The machine he was using had been switched to manual mode by the worker, overriding a safety feature which remotely sets the diameter at which the machine can operate.
The worker was using emery cloth to finish the pins off when the cloth and his gloved hand became caught in the mechanism of the machine.
He sustained multiple injuries, including a fractured bone and strained tendons in two fingers on his right-hand.
The man was unable to return to work for four weeks following the accident.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found numerous safety failings within the company, which had been fined twice previously for breaching safety regulations; once in December 1999 and then again in August 2000.
The HSE investigation established that the use of emery cloths had become standard practice within the company and no risk assessment had been carried out, which would have identified the possible dangers of their use. The unsafe working method had been allowed to continue as a result.
Further still, the operations manager overseeing the department had not received training for his role.
Macduff Shipyards were fined £8,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
The HSE report did not state whether the employee will be seeking personal injury compensation.
