WA vegetable business fined over worker's crushed thumb

A West Australian vegetable packing and export business has been fined $33,000 (plus almost $1200 in costs) over a lack of machinery guarding that resulted in a worker’s thumb being crushed.

North East Equity Pty Ltd - trading as Sumich’s - pleaded guilty to failing to provide a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious injury to an employee, and was fined in the Fremantle Magistrates Court in June 2014.

At the time of the incident in May 2011, the injured employee was working in the area of the operation where carrots were graded and packed. She had been employed by Sumich’s for approximately 20 years.

In this area there were two carrot hoppers, each with a bin tipper, and it was part of the employee’s duties to remove bins and occasionally to drain the hoppers of water on Fridays.

The water lever and control panel for the tipper were located in a position that was too high for her to reach while standing on the ground, and she would sometimes climb up the frame of the bin tipper to reach the lever or the control panel.

On the day of the incident, the employee was draining the hopper and holding the frame with her right hand to steady herself while reaching up with her left hand to operate the water lever. The bin cradle lowered and crushed her right thumb against the bin tipper frame.

She had returned to the floor and could no longer reach the controls to raise the bin tipper, so another employee rushed over and raised the bin cradle to release her thumb.

The employee underwent surgery the following day, including the insertion of an internal screw-plate and a bone graft from her forearm. She has been left with a permanent loss of function and motion in her thumb and did not return to work until February 2013.

The pinch point between the tipper frame and the bin cradle had never been guarded since the bin tippers were installed between 2001 and 2003, and no formal risk assessments had been undertaken nor written safe work procedures developed for the hoppers or bin tippers.

WorkSafe WA Commissioner Lex McCulloch said the case illustrated the importance of guarding hazardous parts of machinery and having safe work procedures in place at all times.

“Subsequent to this incident, the employer made several modifications to the bin tippers and hoppers, including moving the controls and guarding the pinch points,” McCulloch said.

“In total, these changes cost the employer a couple of thousand dollars. If they had been made earlier, this incident would not have occurred and the employee involved would have been spared a great deal of suffering and a permanent injury.

“It seems that employers are just not getting the message that guarding is absolutely essential and that it is never safe to allow the moving parts of machinery - especially this type of pinch point - to remain unguarded.

“It is worth reminding workers that they too have a responsibility for their own safety and the safety of those around them, but it is up to the employer to provide the safe work environment via safe machinery and the development and implementation of safe work procedures.

“Guarding of the dangerous moving parts of machinery is such a basic and easy precaution to take, and it really is time for employers to take a good hard look at the guarding situation and stop exposing employees to the risk of injury.”

Further information on machinery guarding and safe work procedures can be obtained at www.worksafe.wa.gov.au.