Business fined after teen loses fingertips two weeks into new job

A teenager two weeks into a new job suffered partial finger amputations in an incident that could have been “easily avoided”, according to SafeWork SA.

An Adelaide trailer manufacturer has been fined $180,000 after an inexperienced employee – just two weeks into the job – lost five fingertips while using a guillotine.

The 18-year-old employee suffered partial finger amputations to both index and middle fingers and to his left ring finger while he was operating a 3m long Hydraulic Swing Beam Sheet guillotine to cut steel in November 2020.

He was just two weeks in his job at Pooraka-based employer, LC Investing, which trades as Basic Trailers.

After a SafeWork SA investigation, the business pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to comply with a duty to ensure its employee safety in the SA Employment Tribunal.

In his ruling, Deputy President Stephen Lieschke said the victim – who was not able to have his fingertips reattached – had suffered “significant lifelong impairments”.

A SafeWork SA investigation found an incident where a teen severed five fingertips two weeks into new job could have been “easily avoided”. Picture Roger Wyman

“It resulted from an unexplained disregard of the need for the best possible guarding that was reasonably practicable,” he said.

He said the business’s breach comprised of “not adequately guarding the powerful cutting blade of the guillotine when it was reasonably practicable to do so” and that the business could have, but had not, installed a permanently fixed physical barrier to eliminate the risk of injury.

Mr Lieschke said the victim had received on-the-job training for the guillotine but was not given any instructions about not moving the guard.

He said the young worker had been “deemed competent” after making about 20 cuts without supervision and had cut six or seven sheets before the incident on the day.

He said the worker thought his hands were in a safe position when he used the foot pedal to operate the machinery.

“The danger zone of the cutting area of the guillotine was not visibly marked on the bed of the guillotine,” he said.

The victim was off work for four months and resigned soon after returning.

Mr Lieschke said the business “promptly and easily fixed the guard in place” and later replaced the guillotine with a new, fully guarded machine.

“The victim’s youth and inexperience are aggravating factors of this offending, in the circumstances of poor training and being allocated solo work on the guillotine by his second week of employment,” Mr Lieschke said.

“That is because reliance on weak administrative hazard controls necessarily puts a young inexperienced worker at greater risk of injury until they develop the experience, familiarity, and judgment about how to avoid a poorly controlled hazard.”

He reduced a $300,000 fine to $180,000 due to the business’s guilty plea.

SafeWork SA Acting executive director Glenn Farrell said the incident could have been “easily avoided”.

“We are seeing these types of injuries far too often, which is frustrating because they can easily be prevented,” he said.

“This case also highlights the importance of adequate training and supervision of inexperienced workers.”

Originally published as Business fined after teen loses fingertips two weeks into new job