Fitzpatrick Fabrications Ltd, a sheet metal fabrication company in Nelson, Lancashire (United Kingdom), has been fined £48,000 after a welder/fabricator lost part of his right thumb while manually lifting a 133 kg workpiece. According to the British workplace safety regulator HSE, a near-identical incident had already occurred in the days before.
What happened
On 24 October 2024 at around 11:30 a.m., the welder/fabricator was working at the company’s factory in Nelson. He was welding large stainless steel sections together to form a so-called hopper, consisting of five parts. After welding each side, the workpiece had to be lifted and repositioned so that the next side could be welded.
The man did this alone. He held the larger side of the 133 kg hopper in the air while the smaller side rested on a desk. The workpiece slid across the smooth desk and landed on his hand. The result was a crush injury and the partial loss of his right thumb.
Findings
HSE found that the company had not carried out a risk assessment for this task and that no safe system of work existed. As a result, employees had not been given clear instructions on how to carry it out safely. Further investigation showed that a near-identical incident had taken place in the days before this accident.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 4(1) of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. On 6 October 2026, Warrington Magistrates’ Court imposed a fine of £48,000, plus £10,089 in costs.
The employee described the consequences in a statement: actions he used to do without thinking now take effort. For simple things, such as picking up small objects, he needs two hands, and fastening buttons or zips is difficult.
Recommendations
The HSE inspector described the incident as entirely preventable. According to him, it has a profound and lasting impact on the employee’s life, made worse by the fact that a near-identical incident had occurred a few days earlier. According to HSE, employers must always consider the safest way to lift and move loads manually. That means a thorough risk assessment and the use of tools such as the Manual Handling Assessment Charts (MAC tool) to plan the task.
According to the inspector, the company failed in its duty to plan the task properly. The fine should be a clear reminder that HSE holds employers to account when they fail to let their employees work safely.
Context
Regulation 4(1) of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 requires employers to avoid hazardous manual handling operations, so far as is reasonably practicable. Where that is not possible, they must assess the operations, reduce the risk of injury to the lowest level reasonably practicable, and give employees general information on the weight of the load and, where reasonably practicable, precise information on the weight and on the heaviest side of a load whose centre of gravity is not in the middle.
For HSE professionals in other jurisdictions, the lesson goes beyond British law. A task in which a single worker lifts a heavy workpiece that partly rests on a smooth surface calls for a working method thought through in advance, and a comparable incident that has already occurred is a signal to review the task before a second incident follows.
Source: HSE press release: Sheet metal fabrication company fined £48,000 after employee suffers life-changing injury, 7 October 2026
Additional research: Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, regulation 4 (legislation.gov.uk)
