A company was ordered to pay a 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 himself down by a piece of equipment known as a stitcher and began stapling copy books which had their staples inserted badly by 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, his foot plastered itself to the stitcher's pedal 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. Mr Micallef, who now works as a storeman, never managed to regain full movement of his finger.

The company argued that the incident was solely his fault since he acted irresponsibly despite being given the "necessary training" and had strict instructions not to use the machine in question.

However, Mr Micallef argued his instructions were the opposite, where he was given instructions to use the stitcher in the case of badly stapled books. He pointed out that the stitcher did not have a safety guard and that this safety feature was only installed following the incident.

His version of events was corroborated by his colleague, who said he had brought the impending danger to the attention of their boss numerous times but no action was taken.

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

Seliter Ltd was ordered to pay €27,592.