Industry news roundup: week ended 29 July 2013:
Everyone’s had days where they would rather stay in bed instead of going to work, as these two blokes that got injured on the job recently can attest to.
First up the unfortunate tale of a very unlucky brewery worker that ended up a few fingers short after a run-in with a faulty grain dust extractor. The poor man had been busy trying to clear a blockage on the extractor by hand, but as he reached deep into the machine’s chute the rotary valve inside made short work of his index and middle fingers.
Poor bastard needed five surgeries to repair his hand. On top of that, the Health and Safety Executive found out that the brewery’s owners, Hall & Woodhouse Ltd, had somehow neglected to place any arrangements in place for employees to clean out the piece of machinery besides, you know, sticking your hand in.
I swear it’s like employers have their heads up their arses when it comes to employee safety. This poor man should get the biggest, meanest personal injury solicitor he can find and he should sue the pants off his employer; I’ll wager that will be the last time that brewery looks at safety issues the same way!
Meanwhile, this isn’t just an isolated incident. Another story I read recently recounted how another food industry worker – this time the health and safety manager for a Lincolnshire frozen potato product manufacturer, ironically enough – ended up showered with scalding hot 160-degree oil because he inadvertently knocked into a pipe as he was keeping an eye on an unrelated procedure.
62 year old Harvey Hopwood, an employee of PAS (Grantham) Ltd, was simply making sure the lads were jet washing the facility’s oil storage tank properly when the incident occurred, which left him with 10 per cent burns over his upper body. Poor Mr Hopwood was laid up for a month before eventually having to leave the company due to his injuries, which occurred because the pressure valve of the pipe he came into contact with fell right off.
This is another case where I hope Mr Hopwood has a very aggressive injury solicitor working for him. I can’t imagine the pain, suffering, and indignity of having to be showered with boiling hot oil because my employer is too lazy to ensure that all the pressure valves at their facility are secure and working properly!