A company was ordered to pay its former employee nearly €28,000 in damages after his finger was stapled to a book while using industrial machinery which lacked safety guards.

The incident happened in March 2005 when Gilbert Micallef, 40, was working as a factory assistant at Seliter Limited in a job which involved a printing press.

Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima heard how Mr Micallef was not given adequate training in the handling of machinery, with his training consisting solely of his colleague showing him the ropes while on the job and then continuing with his own tasks.

On the day of the incident, Mr Micallef sat down by a piece of equipment known as a stitcher and began stapling those copy books whose staples had been inserted badly using another piece of equipment known as a collator.

The collator suddenly ground to a halt and, when Mr Micallef got up to see what happened, he slipped and his hand slid beneath the machine’s head, stapling the ring finger of his right hand to a book.

He was rushed to hospital where he was operated upon. However, the fracture did not heal properly and his finger had to be broken again and operated on.

Mr Micallef, who now works as a storeman, never managed to regain full movement of his finger.

The court ruled that it was the company’s duty to provide adequate training, a safe work environment and system of work. Had the safety guard been in place, his hand would not have slid beneath the machine.

Seliter Ltd was ordered to pay him €27,592.