McCain incurs another health and safety breach

McCain Foods (Australia) was fined $145,000 after admitting to health and safety failings at its Ballarat plant, in circumstances which echo an earlier breach by the company.

The conviction under the Occupational Health and Safety Act related to a 2007 incident where a maintenance fitter’s left thumb was amputated while working on a machine which peels and cleans potatoes on the company’s French Fries potato line.

The Ballarat County Court heard that two fitters and an electrician attempted to fix the broken machine, believing it to be isolated through its control switches - when it was actually on a manual setting.

When one of the fitters put his hand in the machine to loosen a chain, the machine started up, amputating his left thumb.

Since the incident, the company has complied with two improvement notices issued by WorkSafe Victoria, and developed an isolation lockout procedure for the machine. It has also designed labels for each piece of plant indicating whether or not multiple isolations are required.

The situation echoes an earlier conviction of McCain Foods by WorkSafe in 2008. A shredder at the same plant unexpectedly started while a maintenance mechanic was working on it, causing skin and flesh on one of his fingers to be removed.

Prior to this 2008 conviction, McCain Foods was also prosecuted for workplace health and safety failings in 1983, 1986, 1991, 2002 and 2003.

WorkSafe Victoria’s Acting Director Stan Krpan said: “Being a leader in the community is about accepting responsibility and showing leadership in safety. We expect large organisations with considerable resources to do the right thing.

“Locking out and de-energising machinery is a basic requirement for any maintenance job. Sometimes protecting your workers is as easy as having a few systematic safety steps in place to make sure this happens.”