Bread supplier Jacksons Bakery has been fined more than £366k after an employee lost a finger in machinery at its Corby site in Northamptonshire.
During a hearing last week, Wellingborough Magistrates Court heard how a 31-year-old engineer had caught a finger on his right hand in a flour sifting machine whilst assisting colleagues in trying to clear a blockage on 2 February last year.
The engineer had removed a guard to check the tension of a drive belt but had been unaware that the machine had been switched back on. His hand then got pulled around the bottom pully, resulting in the amputation of part of his right middle finger.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Jacksons Bakery had failed to implement a safe system of work ensuring that machinery was robustly isolated and then locked off during maintenance when fixed guards would be removed.
Additionally, HSE found that engineers were unclear on when to isolate and ‘lock out tag out’ machines due to an absence of adequate training and instruction – the fact that this was not custom and practice illustrated a lack of necessary supervision and monitoring, noted the investigators.
Jacksons Bakery Ltd, which is owned by William Jackson Food Group (WJFG), plead guilty to contravening a requirement of section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. It was fined £366,666 and was ordered to pay costs of £5,386.
“This unnecessary incident highlights the duty on employers to ensure that there are robust procedures in place relating to maintenance activities,” commented HSE inspector Rebecca Gibson after the 3 October hearing. “If an appropriate ‘lock out tag out’ procedure had been produced and implemented and with suitable training, the serious injury would have been avoided.”
The prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Samantha Wells and supported by HSE paralegal Rebecca Withell.
Jacksons Bakery accepted the ruling, saying it recognised that there was a breach of the Health & Safety at Work Act. ”Since the incident, we have supported the employee impacted and following a review we have increased colleague training and made our safety procedures clearer across all sites,” added a spokesperson for the company.
Jacksons is a sixth-generation family bakery business that operates bread-making plants in Corby as well as at its headquarters in Hull. It supplies sliced sandwich bread to the UK’s food-to-go sector, plus all of Co-op’s own-label bread. The company also produces a range of loaves under its Jacksons of Yorkshire retail brand including the new Tiger Bloomers, launched in February.
Earlier this year, WJFG acquired sweet treat specialist Lottie Shaw’s – another Yorkshire-based, family-run bakery business – to join Jacksons, Abel & Cole, Belazu, and Wellocks on its portfolio.
Three other UK bakery manufacturers have also been hit with major fines this year for past accidents sustained by workers on-site including a £400k fine for Baker & Baker, and £800k fines for both Pork Farms and Stateside Foods.
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