Sainsbury’s and Waitrose ‘investigating as a matter of urgency’ after worker at sushi supplier has finger tips cut off
Waitrose and Sainsbury’s are investigating “as a matter of urgency” after a worker had finger tips chopped off in Taiko Foods’ factory, which supplies sushi to the retailers.
The retailers are looking into the incident, in which Viraj Kakadia operated reportedly unsafe and dangerous vegetable cutting machine at the Taiko Foods factory in Acton.
The worker was sent to A&E in a taxi – but the fingertips were not sent with in ice, so they could not be reattached by doctors. He says he was not wearing sufficient protective equipment.
A spokesperson for Waitrose, which stocks some of Taiko Foods’ sushi, said: “Worker welfare is incredibly important to us and we’re really concerned to hear about this. We are investigating this as a matter of urgency with Taiko.”
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson added, “All of the products available to our customers have to be produced in a way that meets our high worker safety and welfare standards. We take allegations of this nature very seriously and we are urgently investigating with the manufacturer.”
Kakadia said Taiko, “is playing games with my life. If they sent the fingertips with ice with me to the hospital, I’d still have them intact today. They didn’t call an ambulance, and they haven’t offered me any support.”
GMB’s London Region Organiser Hiten Vaidya, said he was not given sick pay during his two weeks off, and was made to take it as holiday.
Taiko, which employs 600 people, sad it “takes its health and safety obligations very seriously” offering training, protective equipment and maintained machinery.”
“This was an incident to which the onsite team responded swiftly and efficiently, ensuring our colleague reached hospital as quickly as possible. Our colleague will be paid in full for his leave of absence and we have reinstated any annual leave he took following this incident.”