Machine Guarding - .Culture of Carelessness. costs £50k

Supermarket giant Tesco has been ordered to pay £50,000 after a bakery worker lost the top of his finger in a bread-making machine.

Norwich Magistrates. Court, sitting in front of a district judge on 27 June, imposed the maximum fine after 23-year-old Ryan Jennings was injured while working at the firm's Harford Bridge store near Norwich on 5 February 2004.

Although Tesco had not entered a plea at an earlier hearing at the court in February 2005 and had therefore pleaded not guilty, it admitted a charge under s2(1) of HSWA 1974 of not ensuring the safety of its employees, as well as a charge under reg. 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 for failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery. It was fined £20,000 for the first offence, £5000 for the second, and ordered to pay the full £25,000 costs of South Norfolk Council, which brought the prosecution.

The court heard that a dough divider was being used in the bakery department of the store without a key safety guard being in place, a practice that had occurred on a number of occasions at that store. When Ryan Jennings put his hand into the machine while it was running to clear some stuck dough, the tip of his right index finger was amputated.

In mitigation, Tesco said it had been an isolated incident and had occurred as a result of their systems not being followed. The Council's barrister said the firm had been operating in a .culture of carelessness.. Sue Nixon, the South Norfolk Council senior environmental health officer who investigated the case, said: "South Norfolk Council welcomes the district judge's decision to impose the maximum fine open to him for these two serious offences. It sends a powerful message to Tesco and to other employers that the safety of their staff must be a top priority. 

"We also welcome the fact that, thanks to South Norfolk Council's action and this decision, Tesco has changed the way it implements its national health and safety policies so that today, Tesco employees in all 1300 stores should be working under safer conditions".

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