A cleaning services company has been fined after a worker suffered serious crush injuries while cleaning industrial machinery, highlighting the importance of providing safety training in a language workers can understand.
Eco Facility Services Pty Limited, which provides cleaning and sanitisation services to a food processing company supplying packaged meat to supermarkets, was sentenced after pleading guilty to a failure to provide information, instruction and training in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner.
In May 2024, a worker was cleaning and sanitising a meat grinder during a night shift when they noticed residual product lodged near the machine’s feeding worm. While the worker reached into the lower chute to dislodge the material, a colleague, unaware of the worker’s hand position, activated the machine’s JOG function from an external operating panel.
The feeding worm rotated one full turn, crushing the worker’s right hand against one of its paddles. The worker spent four nights in hospital and underwent two surgeries.
The court heard that many Eco Facility Services employees spoke Karen or Burmese as their primary language and had limited English proficiency. Despite this, training, instructions and safe work procedures were provided exclusively in English.
The company accepted that it had failed to provide the necessary training on the machine’s safe work procedure in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner, including through interpreters and translated materials.
Eco Facility Services was fined $30,000 without conviction. The court said the offending represented a clear departure from acceptable safety standards, with the potential for serious injury foreseeable given the machinery involved.
However, the court noted that the company had established extensive OHS systems, had not neglected its safety obligations entirely and acted promptly after the incident - its failure was in not adequately adapting its training to suit its workforce.
This case demonstrates that simply supplying safety documents or delivering training does not necessarily mean that workers have received effective instruction. Employers must consider workers’ language proficiency and ensure they can understand the hazards, procedures and controls relevant to their jobs.
A similar issue arose recently in NSW in a case against Top BCR Pty Ltd, which was fined $101,250 after a large masonry wall collapsed at a residential construction site. The site foreman had not seen the relevant safe work method statement and, due to limited English proficiency, would not have been able to read it even if it was available to him. The NSW court stressed that providing an English-only SWMS was insufficient to instruct workers with limited English skills.
Together, these cases reinforce a fundamental safety and education principle: communication is only effective when workers can understand and apply the information provided.
WorkSafe publishes guidance for employers explaining their duty to provide OHS information to employees in appropriate languages and forms and to ensure that employees with limited English proficiency are appropriately represented in consultation on workplace health and safety. The code provides practical guidance on how to comply with those duties and obligations.
Read more: Prosecution Result Summaries and Enforceable Undertakings | WorkSafe Victoria
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The Victorian Government has responded to the Sentencing Advisory Council’s 12 recommendations for reform regarding the sentencing of OHS offences in Victoria and legislated to increase maximum penalties for aggravated breaches of Section 21 of the OHS Act. The recommendation to increase all general duty offences is accepted ‘in-principle’. The Government will review effectiveness of the new penalties and consider further increases, however, there is no clear implementation timeline on this reform.