Following two industrial accidents since July when two workers lost fingers at work, the GMB union is holding a mass meeting of food workers in Wembley today.
The GMB has invited its 2,500 members at Katsouris Fresh Foods, Park Royal, to the meeting at 4pm at Brent Indian Association Community Resource Centre, 116, Ealing Road, Wembley.
GMB member Dimple Muit lost the top of the middle finger of her right hand while using a machine which she had already reported as faulty.
Her suffering was compounded when her Katsouris manager allegedly refused to call an ambulance, offering her nothing but tissues to staunch the flow of blood from her damaged hand.
When she was finally taken to hospital by car she was left by herself outside the A&E unit bleeding heavily from her injured hand and holding a plastic bag containing her severed finger in the other.
The delay meant that her finger could not be re-attached.
Dimple will be off work for eight to ten weeks and is in constant pain.
Shortly after Dimple’s accident her work colleague Nitin Chokshi suffered an accident at the Katsouris site when a large rubbish bin fell on him, severing the tops of two fingers of his left hand.
The GMB has lodged personal injury claims for both injured members.
It has also written to the Health and Safety Executive demanding action against the company, which has been served with seven Health and Safety Executive improvement notices in recent years with no visible improvement in the safety.
Katsouris Fresh Foods employs 2,500 people in its three Park Royal sites which provide ready meals to major supermarkets and retailers.
Katsouris Fresh Foods is part of the Geest Group and the Katsouris workforce are currently undergoing a TUPE transfer to Geest.
Today’s meeting will plan a campaign to force Katsouris to improve the safety at its three Park Royal sites, which the GMB says is likely to include demonstrations outside major High Street stores such as Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury and Waitrose all of whom are customers of Katsouris.
