Makmur Enterprises Pty Ltd manufactures food products such as dim-dims and dumplings, using a 1000L large ribbon mixer. Employees are required to clean the mixer at the end of each day, which involves accessing several hazardous areas via access gates that were fitted with interlocks to stop the machine running when an access gate was opened.
One of the hazardous areas was the discharge area, a mixing chamber containing blades mounted on motor driven shafts.
In July 2021 it was discovered that the interlock for the discharge area access gate had failed – management were informed, the machine was locked and tagged out, and an electrician performed an inspection and considered the interlock to be working correctly.
In August 2021the employee was cleaning the mixer and opened the access gate to the discharge area. Despite the machine not stopping, the employee did not see or hear that the machine was still operating. He reached inside to remove a piece of debris and the blades in the chamber severed the index and middle fingers of his left hand.
The employee was taken to hospital where his severed fingers were reattached in surgery.
The employer pleaded guilty a failure to provide and maintain plant and guarding and received a $120,000 fine. This incident is the fifth time the employer has been prosecuted over inadequately guarded plant.
Read more: Prosecution Result Summaries and Enforceable Undertakings | WorkSafe Victoria