OneSteel Reinforcing fined after worker loses thumb
A national steel supplier has been fined after a young employee had to have his thumb amputated due to a workplace incident.
South East
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A NOBLE Park steel supplier has been fined $30,000 after an employee lost his thumb due to a workplace incident.
The machine operator, 28, had been removing steel bars from a metal bending machine when his thumb got caught between a fixed guard and a conveyor at OneSteel Reinforcing Pty Ltd.
The injured digit had to be amputated in hospital after the 2017 incident.
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A WorkSafe Victoria investigation found a 10mm gap between the conveyor and a fixed guard posed a risk of entanglement or crushing injury.
OneSteel Reinforcing appeared at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court last month regarding the matter and pleaded guilty on one charge of failing to, so far as is reasonably practicable, provide and maintain a safe working environment.
The court heard the company conducted a safety audit on that machine before the incident but failed to identify the risk.
OneSteel Reinforcing was fined without conviction, having made an early guilty plea and with no prior convictions.
The court heard the company had complied with notices to fix a yellow metal plate and two guards at the end of the conveyor.
It also moved an emergency stop button to make it easier to access.
“This horrific and debilitating kind of injury should not be occurring in the 21st century, yet machine guarding remains one of the state’s biggest workplace safety issues,” WorkSafe health and safety executive director Julie Nielsen said.
“Employers must make sure approved physical barriers or guards are fitted to all moving machine parts that can have contact with any part of the body.”
A Leader investigation recently revealed Greater Dandenong had the second most workplace injury claims in the state at 1488.