Laundry fined after employee injured

A company has been fined £30,000 over an inadequate risk assessment which led to an employee suffering a number of injuries.

Eastern Counties Laundries has also been charged £15,000 in costs attached to the investigation after it admitted to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

One of its workers suffered bruising and both internal and external burns after trying to dislodge an obstruction.

After he climbed into the machine, it activated and trapped his neck and hands.

Julie Rayner, an Health and Safety Executive inspector, claims the accident shows the hazards presented by inadequate risk assessment in the workplace.

Stating the blockages which required the employee to enter the machine occurred several times a day, she says the company did not implement a procedure to ensure they could be removed safely and did not train its workers in how to deal with the problem.

"The system for stopping the conveyors in an emergency, which the employee in this incident activated, was also faulty," she adds.

Last month, the Swindon Advertiser reported an employee at a SITA recycling site was killed while trying to clear a blockage from a waste disposal machine.