Firm in court after putting workers’ safety at risk.
A manufacturer of flight simulator equipment for the aviation industry has been in court for using unsafe machinery.
What happened?
EDM Ltd has been prosecuted after a health and safety inspector found some of the equipment was missing guards during two separate visits to its factory, putting workers’ safety at risk.
After receiving an anonymous complaint in 2013, an inspector for the Health and Safety Executive visited the site and issued two improvement notices requiring guards to be fitted on two metalworking lathes.
The following year same inspector returned to the site and noticed that guards were missing on two other machines. This time Prohibition Notices were served to prevent them from being used until guards were fitted.
A further investigation found that there was no system in place to ensure machines were fitted with guards, and employees received no training on how to use guards, and supervision at the factory was poor.
What was the outcome?
EDM Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safety of its employees by breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £2,332 in costs.
HSE Inspector, Emily Osborne, said:
“EDM Ltd manufactures equipment used to keep the aviation industry
safe but it failed to ensure the safety of its own employees.
“The Improvement Notices HSE issued in September 2013 should have
acted as a wake-up call to improve machine guards but I found
guards were still missing when I revisited
the factory nine months later.
“There was simply no point in the company identifying missing
guards in a health and safety document if it
wasn’t going to act on its findings.”
If you have been affected by an accident at work, and you would like expert advice, contact Hampson Hughes Solicitors today on 0800 888 6888 or email
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