TREBLA Nominees and supervisor David Andrew Martin have been fined over an incident in which a teenage employee had a section of finger amputated.
The company and the supervisor pleaded guilty to breaches of the Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act 1986, regarding the safety responsibilities of employers and employees.
The incident occurred in June 2007 at the company’s workshop. Two teenage employees were working on an edge-banding machine, which trims the edges of timber panels and laminates strips to the edges.
The two employees opened a panel to inspect the insides of the machine, after encountering a production problem. The 18-year-old pointed to the possible source of the problem, and his finger came into contact with a blade spinning at high speed.
The young employee lost a section of his finger, and this could not be surgically reattached. He returned to work five months later, and has remained in employment.
According to the prosecutors, it emerged that supervisor Martin had disabled the interlock switches with masking tape three months before the incident. The switches, had they been working, would have cut power to the machine when the panels were opened.
SafeWork SA claims the company failed to provide and maintain a safe operating procedure for adjusting the machine, failed to maintain the machine in a safe condition, and did not provide sufficient training, instruction and supervision.
Trebla Nominees was convicted and fined $16,800. The supervisor was convicted and fined $2,400. He was also ordered to undertake an appropriate safety training course as soon as practicable.