A north-east shipbuilding firm has been fined £8,000 after a worker was injured when his hand was pulled into machinery.
Polish national Mariusz Toporek was employed by Macduff Shipyards in the precision engineering department and was working on a metalworking lathe when the incident happened.
The firm is based in Macduff but has operations in Fraserburgh and Buckie.
On March 19, 2013, Mr Toporek was working in the Macduff workshop.
He switched the machine to manual mode and was using an emery cloth to finish his work when the cloth became entangled in the lathe and pulled his gloved right hand in with it.
The 23-year-old suffered a fractured bone in his hand and strained tendons in two fingers.
He was off work for four weeks as a result.
Maduff Shipyards – which bought over the beleaguered Buckie Shipyard in 2013 – was fined £8,000 at Banff Sheriff Court yesterday after admitting breaching Health and Safety regulations.
The company has two previous convictions for health and safety breaches in December 1999 and August 2000, resulting in fines of £500 and £2,000 respectively.
Following the case, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Niall Miller said: “This was an entirely avoidable incident. The dangers of wearing gloves when working with lathes are well known.
“Macduff Shipyards Limited should have been aware of the risks to workers in its precision engineering department and should have given them appropriate training and supervision.
“As there was no official system of work planned by the company, workers used methods that were unsuitable and which put them at risk, ultimately ending up with Mr Toparek sustaining injuries to his right hand and being unable to work for four weeks.”
The HSE inspection also concluded that the firm failed to carry out risk assessments for working in the precision engineering department and using the machinery there.
The day-to-day running of the workshop, including health and safety, was left to the operations manager who had received no specific training, and the company failed to assess the risks of using emery cloths.
The result was that workers “developed and used an unsafe working method”.
No one at Macduff Shipyards was available to comment yesterday and Mr Toporek could not be contacted.