UK firms could seek health and safety assistance following Manchester company's punishment
October 12th 16:06 Health and Safety
The incident could inspire a number of businesses to seek the assistance of a facilities management provider with regard to their health and safety records.
Fencing Supplies Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after the organisation uncovered a number of unsafe practices at its factory.
According to the HSE, guards were disabled on no less than nine fence cutting machines, five of which had been "deliberately bypassed".
The firm was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £2,774 costs after pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
Mike Lisle, the investigating inspector at HSE, said: "The machines should have automatically shut down before anyone was able to get close to the dangerous parts of the machinery.
"But as a result of the guards being defeated, the machines continued to operate with workers at risk of coming into contact with moving parts and suffering serious injury."
