Paper Australia Pty Ltd has been convicted of failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment and fined $30,000 after an employee received serious lacerations to their forearm.
The January 2023 incident occurred on the Rewinder machine which is used to cut larger rolls of paper into smaller widths. The machine requires two-person operation – a machine operator and an assistant machine operator. The assistant is required to undertake tasks in a high-risk area known as the danger zone, where slitter blocks and partially guarder slitter knives are located.
In order to load a roll of paper onto the machine, the assistant creates a long tail in the paper which is threaded by hand between the rollers and through the danger zone. On the day of the incident the assistant encountered repeated paper jams. While attempting to manually clear the jams, the assistant reached into the danger zone where the slitter blocks were actively rotating at 500 meters per minute. Despite the inherent risks, operators were trained to sometimes maintain higher speeds of 2,000 meters per minute, increasing the potential danger.
On her third attempt to thread the paper, it bunched up again, requiring her to intervene and her right arm made contact with one of the slitter blocks, resulting in a severe laceration on her forearm. The injury, approximately 9 to 10 cm long, required immediate medical attention and subsequent surgery.
In response to the incident Paper Australia enacted an interim work system requiring slitter blocks to be powered down before any access to the danger zone for threading paper. Staff members were trained on this new procedure, which remained in effect until the plant’s decommissioning three weeks later.
Paper Australia pleaded guilty to one charge pursuant to sections 21(1) and 21(2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to provide and maintain a safe system of work that required the following when threading, adjusting and/or clearing jammed paper from the plant:
- the slitter block drives to be switched off at the control panel of the plant; and
- the slitter blocks be wound down to a stop before employees entered the gated area surrounding the plant.
Read more: WorkSafe Victoria | $30,000 fine for paper machine injury