Tyson Foods Australia fined $75k after teen worker loses fingertip

A southeast Queensland-based company with more than 25 years’ experience in the food industry has been fined $75,000 after a 16-year-old worker lost one of his fingertips in a patty-making machine, a court has heard.

Tyson Foods. Picture:Bloomberg News

A southeast Queensland-based company with more than 25 years’ experience in the food industry has been fined $75,000 after a 16-year-old worker lost one of his fingertips in a patty-making machine, a court has heard.

Australian Food Corporation Pty Ltd, trading as Tyson Foods Australia, was charged with one count of failure to comply with health and safety duty – exposing a person to risk of death, serious injury or illness.

A representative of the Coominya (Somerset Council region) company pleaded guilty on behalf of the company on Tuesday, July 16 in Ipswich Magistrates Court.

The court heard the 16-year-old boy joined the business on August 30, 2021 with some prior experience in labouring.

He was taken through some safety and health general procedures and inducted into the workplace so he understand the layout, the court heard.

The court was told his first three weeks involved labouring-type activities relevant to the incident.

He was tasked to work on the patty making production line where he was paired with another worker.

The court was told his job was to clean around the chute of the machine.

He was shown by several workers how to reach under the conveyor system and watch the shoot, so material could be pushed into a plastic bucket to be reworked into the patty system.

In the days before the incident he had adopted a practice where he would sit underneath the conveyor to scoop out the chute, the court was told.

The court heard this was because he wanted to get all the material into the bucket as sometimes it fell on the floor.

He hadn’t been warned not to do it by any of the other employees.

The court was told the conveyor belt had small hooks on it to grip the patties and the teen’s gloves became caught in them.

The top of his forefinger was sheared down to the first knuckle and was unable to be recovered.

Defence lawyer Benjamin Dighton said the company had safe work practices in place.

“This was a case where there were some systems, there was some training, there was a (safety rules) sticker,” he said.

“But the support system was not sufficient to guard against what happened, which was an informal practice arising … that ultimately led to the incident that occurred.”

Mr Dighton said the company also checked in with the teen every day after the incident to ensure his rehabilitation was on track.

He said the teen worker eventually returned to work at Tyson Foods.

“When he was there, he had two members of management supporting him,” he said.

“And his mother, who has been a longtime employee of the company, still is an employee of the company.”

Acting Magistrate Paul Byrne said Tyson Foods had no previous convictions.

He ordered it be fined $75,000, with a professional fee of $10,000.

No conviction was recorded.

Originally published as Tyson Foods Australia fined $75k after teen worker loses fingertip