Rochdale bedding firm fined after worker loses fingers on first day

Sartex Quilts and Textiles Ltd in Rochdale admitted breaching health and safety laws

A bedding manufacturer where a worker had his fingers cut off by machinery on his first day on the job has been fined more than £250,000.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said the man was hurt while cleaning machines at Sartex Quilts and Textiles Ltd in Rochdale in March 2020.

A second man also had to have his finger tips amputated after they were crushed in a separate incident in 2021.

An HSE representative said their injuries were "serious and avoidable".

They said the first man was injured at the firm's Castle Mill site on 29 March 2020 after being instructed to clean a measuring wheel on a cutting machine on his first day at work.

The 32-year-old, from Burnley, climbed on to a conveyer belt, but the machine had not been properly isolated from power sources and a circular saw was started.

They said another employee pressed the emergency stop button, but it was too late to stop the worker being seriously injured.

Gloves tangled

In a statement, he said he had been "healthy, happy and active" before the incident, but after three fingers had to be amputated, he now struggled to come to terms with what happened.

"I try not to expose my left hand too much to my children when I am playing with them or when they are in my company [and] I do not talk about the incident with my children," he said.

"When I am out and about in public, I try to keep my injured hand out of the public view."

The HSE representative said the second man, a 52-year-old from Rochdale, was injured on 22 October 2021.

They said the man had been operating a quilting machine and had attempted to put a fallen casing on the back of the machine while it was working.

His gloves got tangled in the machine and his right hand was dragged into it and cut and crushed.

The tips of two of his fingers had to be amputated as a result.

HSE inspectors found the firm had not guarded the machinery or implemented suitable and sufficient procedures to isolate it from power.

The company admitted breaching the 1974 Health & Safety at Work Act and a regulation of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 at Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court and was fined £251,250.

It was also ordered to pay £6,862.63 in costs.

Speaking afterwards, HSE inspector Elena Pickford said the men's injuries were "serious and avoidable [as] the risk should have been identified".