The Grand Hotel Excelsior's general manager was responsible for a hotel laundry room accident which cost an employee four of her fingers, a court found today. 

Norbert Grixti, 55, deemed to be a pioneer in health and safety issues at the workplace on account of his "work in this sector ", was made to shoulder the blame for the accident which occurred in April 2009 and fined €6,000. 

Employee Victoria Cassar was operating a large laundry ironer at the hotel when her hand was trapped between steam rollers as she tried to remove a piece of plastic that had got lodged behind the rollers. The court noted that the woman had attempted to pull out the plastic without first switching off the machine.

A colleague had pressed the emergency button, but in the ensuing panic the machine was mistakenly switched back on, the court heard, with the victim's hand remaining trapped by the rollers.

Reference was made by the court to a report drawn up by engineer Cecil Chircop, which noted that the roller velocity was "relatively slow" and "quite safe." The court was informed of the basic training given to operators of these machines.

In-house training ought to have been sufficient for the victim to know that she should not have inserted her hand when the machine was running, the report stated.

However, the Occupational Health and Safety Authority's principal health and safety officer had testified that a safety guard on the machine was missing. Moreover, the court was told that employees had no access to the safety instructions on the owner's manual, since this was kept by management. The court noted that the only protective gear worn by the victim were rubber gloves.

The court observed that the woman had admitted that she had not thought of switching off the machine before putting her hand inside. Yet despite the employee's negligence, the court concluded that had Mr Grixti better observed the health and safety regulations concerning his employees and carried out a better evaluation of them, the unfortunate accident might have been avoided.

The OHSA official's contention that a guard was missing was denied.

For this reason the court, presided by magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, declared the accused guilty of involuntary grievous bodily harm and condemned him to a fine of €6,000. The hotel had compensated the victim for her injuries but had refused to admit liability for the accident.