Labour hire company fined for host's unsafe practices

A labour hire company has been fined $27,500 for failing to ensure that a host company's workplace was safe before deploying its workers, after one employee’s fingers were crushed in an unguarded machine.

Skilled Group pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace, and by that failure, causing serious harm to a worker, and was fined in the Fremantle Magistrates Court.

In August 2005, a worker supplied to Bestbar, a manufacturer and supplier of steel reinforcing products, was using a radius machine to shape steel bars into circles. The machine had recently been fitted with a guard, but it was not interlocked, so the machine could operate with the guard open. Also, some tasks on the machine could not be performed with the guard closed.

After using the machine to bend between 300 and 400 steel bars into circles, the man's glove was dragged into the pinch point between the bar and the roller.

He received a crush injury to the right hand, which resulted in partial amputation of three fingers. Doctors surgically reattached the fingers.

The labour hire host and owner of the machine, Bestbar, was fined $30,000 in December 2007 over the incident.

WorkSafe WA commissioner Nina Lyhne said today that the case should serve as a reminder that both labour hire companies and host companies have responsibility for the safety and health of labour hire workers.

"The injured man was an employee of the labour hire company, which was responsible for ensuring it was sending him to a safe workplace," Ms Lyhne said.

"The case also illustrates once again the vital importance of guarding the moving parts of machinery to minimise the risk of injury to operators.

For more information on the duty of care responsibilities of labour hire companies, visit www.worksafe.wa.gov.au.