In July, WorkSafe prosecuted Retired AKZ Pty, a company with about 30 employees that provides structural steel manufacturing and installation services to the power industry and civil construction projects in the Latrobe Valley. The company's operations involve using various equipment to bend steel into different shapes.
The prosecution followed not one, not two, not three, but FOUR incidents where workers suffered serious injuries from getting their hands caught in unguarded or poorly guarded machinery.
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May 2018 Incident:
- An employee sustained a crush injury to his right-hand ring finger and a partial amputation of his right-hand little finger.
- WorkSafe issued two improvement notices related to unguarded machinery.
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November 2020 Incident:
- A worker lost the skin and flesh padding on his right thumb and lost the thumbnail after accidentally pressing a foot pedal that activated the same machine.
- WorkSafe issued three improvement notices.
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August 2021 Incident:
- Another worker, operating a different machine, lost the tip of his right-hand little finger at the second knuckle and sustained a severe crush injury to his ring finger when his hand was caught in a 'drive roller.'
- WorkSafe issued three more improvement notices.
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February 2023 Incident:
- A worker suffered crushing injuries when his hand was caught in another piece of machinery, losing the ends of his middle and ring fingers and sustaining a major fracture of his little finger.
The company had complied with most of the improvement notices before the latest incident. In sentencing the company, Her Honour noted that it had pleaded guilty to three incidents (in 2020, 2021, and 2023) and accepted that a previous incident occurred in 2018. However, she also noted that by the time of the final incident in 2023, the hazards were obvious, the likelihood of harm was high, and the consequences were foreseeable.
The company was sentenced, with conviction, to pay a total fine of $92,000 and ordered to pay costs amounting to $15,836.