Ikea fined £100,000 after worker loses part of two fingers

Furniture retailer Ikea has been fined £100,000 after two of an engineer’s fingers were partially amputated during maintenance work on a roof-mounted fan at its Bristol store.

The incident took place at the Eastgate Shopping Centre store on 21 November 2016 and was investigated and prosecuted by Bristol City Council.

A maintenance engineer was checking a fault on a fan located on the roof of the building and health and safety officers found that the fan was not guarded, along with eight others on the roof. It was also found that no risk assessment or training had been done for the job.

Furthermore, there was no adequate risk assessment in place for fault-finding or maintenance work of this kind, and the engineer had received no health and safety training from Ikea for this work.

On 3 October, Ikea’s UK division pleaded guilty at Bristol Magistrates’ Court to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The company was fined £100,000 and was ordered to pay costs of £6,407 to Bristol City Council.

A letter from a board member was read out which expressed remorse for the incident and saidthe lessons learned had been shared throughout the business.

Councillor Kye Dudd, cabinet member for energy, waste and regulatory services at Bristol City Council, said: “The health and safety of employees should be a top priority for every employer. We take reports of breaches very seriously and where appropriate we will investigate claims of poor practice.”