Packaging company fined over two injuries in four days

A South Australian packaging firm was fined almost $50,000 by the Industrial Court today over two workplace incidents in which employees suffered serious hand injuries.

In handing down his penalties against Detmold Packaging, Industrial Magistrate Stephen Lieschke also ordered that copies of his decisions be given to all of the company’s South Australian employees.

The incidents happened on 7 and 11 September 2007 and each involved workers having their hands trapped in unguarded machinery.

In the first incident, a worker was injured during contact with the moving rollers of a printing machine as he attempted to remove loose paper.

The court heard that the guard had been removed for cleaning on the day and not replaced, but also that the danger had been identified 10 months prior in a formal safety analysis, but nothing had been done to interlock the guard to cut the machine’s power when removed.

In the second incident, another employee suffered a hand injury when trying to remove loose paper from a heat-operated shrink-wrapping machine.

SafeWork SA submitted that inadequate guarding was a key factor in this incident also, and in both cases neither worker had been made aware of safe operating procedures for the machines.

The company pleaded guilty to two breaches of section 19(1) of the Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act 1986 in failing to ensure the safety of employees at work.

However, on each count, it faced a maximum fine of $200,000 having been convicted of a similar offence in 1991, meaning it was liable to a higher penalty scale as a second offender.

Magistrate Lieschke imposed convictions and fined the company $26,400 on the first offence and $22,500 on the second, with both discounted for guilty pleas and cooperation with authorities.

“Thousands of injury claims are lodged each year in SA as a result of inadequately guarded machinery,” says SafeWork SA Executive Director Michele Patterson. “Solutions such as guards and lock-out devices, as well as good safety training are crucial to preventing such harm, but we need workplaces to heed the message and enact these measures before someone gets hurt, not after the event.”