Two fined Dhs5,000 each for causing injury to worker

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Misdemeanor Court fined two Asians Dhs5,000 each for mistakenly causing a permanent disability estimated at five per cent to a worker while performing a job.

The case dates back to December last year when a security and safety officer in a Jebel Ali-based company filed a complaint in which he stated that a worker sustained an industrial injury.

According to his statement, he saw the worker screaming after his hand was stuck inside a steel-forming machine.

The complainant added that he stopped the machine and reported the incident to the ambulance and police, noting that the paramedics managed to release the worker’s hand from inside the machine but found that he lost part of his finger as a result of the accident.

The worker was taken to the hospital for the necessary medical treatment.

According to the official documents, the Dubai Public Prosecution charged the company’s security and safety officer with mistake causing a permanent disability to the victim for failing to provide adequate training to him.

It also levelled the same charge to the supervisor who assigned the worker to operate the steel-forming machine though he knew that the worker did not have experience in that field.

The forensic medicine report showed that the accident resulted from the defendants’ breach of what their job titles required them to do, adding that this led the worker’s hand to be stuck after it had reached the moving parts of the steel- forming machine.

The report also showed the moving parts of the machine were not provided with an upper protective cover, that the worker was not adequately trained in safety procedures and that the company did not provide sufficient on-site supervisory oversight.