Leather manufacturer sentenced over worker’s hand injury

The 25 year-old woman from Poland, who does not wish to be named, was working for E-Leather at its manufacturing site at Sturrock Way when the incident happened on 30 October 2012. She subsequently required four months' treatment, but has now returned to work. Peterborough Magistrates' Court was told that the worker was attempting to clear material from a leather buffing machine after noticing small holes appearing at regular intervals in the leather as it emerged from the out-feed. After turning the machine off, the worker ran her hand along a powered feed roller to locate the cause. Being unable to do so, she then turned it back on to reverse the roller and, still not finding anything, restarted it with the roller in forward. The feed roller then pulled her fingers into a gap between the roller and the feed table trapping her right hand and breaking her index finger. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed there were no protective guards around the rotating parts of the machine. Furthermore, this was the second time the company had been prosecuted for machinery safety failings following a conviction in September 2010. E-Leather of Kingsbury Centre, Sturrock Way, Peterborough pleaded guilty to a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations and a breach of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations. HSE inspector Graham Tompkins said: "E-Leather Ltd's inadequate understanding of risk has meant its workers were exposed to the dangerous moving parts of this machine. A simple guard would have prevented this worker's painful injury. "E-Leather has been in court before for very similar safety breaches on its machines so the company was fully aware of the importance of safeguarding dangerous moving parts of machines. However they clearly did not learn from that previous conviction."