Read this article in:
20 October, 2008
Just as ICEM UK affiliate Unite’s Graphical, Print, and Media Sector closed a longstanding employer wrongful death claim, another fatality occurred in this sector in Peterborough. The union mourned and promised to press for a full investigation into the 6 October fatality at a St. Ives Ltd. magazine printing plant near Cambridge.
There, a father of two, 43-year-old Ian Ebbs, a maintenance engineer from Lincolnshire, died from injuries sustained when he was trapped inside a paper-folding machine. He died in a hospital following the tragic workplace occurrence.
This death occurred within days of a UK High Court ruling that declared another company and its insurer, Zurich of Switzerland, is liable in a 2003 death inside a paper plant. A justice ruled that the family of Dean Thomas was entitled to £335,000 in compensation from a 3 May 2003 tragedy at a paper plant in Gloucestershire.
Thomas, 42 and also a father of two, was crushed to death when another worker at JR Crompton Ltd. lowered a hydraulic slitter rewinder in a paper machine that produces perforated tea-bag paper while the victim was inside the machine. That co-worker had not been trained by the company in proper operating procedures.
A judge, in 2006, ordered JR Crompton to pay a mere £200 fine, rationalising that it was “fruitless” to order the firm to pay more since it was bankrupt. But Unite predecessor union Amicus pushed the case forward, stating that the wrong message was being sent to companies guilty of workplace deaths, and that Zurich must be held liable.
“This case has been a grotesque dance by Zurich to reduce the amount of compensation that (an) innocent family should receive,” stated United Regional organiser David Lewis. “We all have a right to go to work and not be injured or killed.”
In this month’s print-shop death at St. Ives, Unite has pledged to push the Health and Safety Executive for a full investigation, and will vigorously monitor developments.