The claimant suffered an accident at work in September 2019. He had been employed as a shift leader for a chipboard manufacturing company in East Ayrshire. Thompsons were contacted by his union, Unite, in order to handle the claim.

The background

Our client had been working on a wood chipping machine called the 'hacker' which had been faulty for some days prior to the accident. Our client believes the machine had been poorly maintained and had made several reports to this effect.

He had been attempting to change blades on the machine when his hand became trapped and crushed in the hydraulically-controlled 'jaws'. Our client was working with a colleague who was not fully aware of how to operate the machine and there were a series of ad-hoc measures put in place to make the faulty machine work. This meant he had to talk his co-worker through how to release the hydraulics while his fingers were still caught in the machine.

The consequences

Fortunately, our client's injuries did not necessitate amputation of any of his fingers, but he suffered significant pain and was required to have the dressings changed on his fingers every two days for around three weeks to prevent the spread of infection. This entailed frequent trips to his GP's surgery.

The settlement

Thompsons work accident solicitors in Scotland intimated a claim to our client's employer who admitted liability.

Two offers – the first of £5,000 and another of £5,500 – were rejected by our client and a further compensation settlement amount of £6,000 was then accepted. The hand injury accident claim was settled on 30 July 2020.