Steel-bending machine's partial degloving lands $90K fine
In Victoria, a steel manufacturing company has been convicted and fined $90,000 after a worker’s hand became trapped in a bending machine. According to WorkSafe Victoria, the company had a history of WHS offending.
The incident
In July 2023, a worker at a Morwell workshop was operating a machine designed to bend lengths of reinforced steel into different shapes. On the day of the incident, the worker was tasked with conducting a new type of bend he had not previously performed.
When the worker noticed during the process that one of the steel bars begin to twist outwards, he used the palm of his hand to guide it back towards the machine — as he was taught.
When he did this, the bar’s wired components caught onto the worker’s safety glove and pulled his hand into the machine’s rollers, resulting in a partial degloving of the worker’s left index finger and the worker being taken to hospital for surgery.
The investigation
In the WorkSafe Victoria investigation that followed, it was revealed that while a guard was available for the machine’s danger area, it was an optional feature that had not been fitted onto the machine since its purchase.
The instructions the company had given to the worker also directly contradicted the machine’s operating manual, which warned about the risk of entanglement, instructing everyone — including operators — to stay at least two metres away from the machine while it was operating.
It was also revealed that while initial training had been provided to the company by the supplier of the machine, since then, workers had been training other workers based on how they were taught and there was no consistent or documented training or emergency procedures in place.
WorkSafe Victoria said that it was “reasonably practicable for the company to have installed guarding to cover the danger area; to have installed an interlock system to ensure the machine only operated when guarding was in place; and to have provided information, instruction and training on hazards and risks associated with the machine and how to reduce them, on task-specific processes including performing different types of bends, and on emergency procedures when working with the machine”.
Conviction and fine
After pleading guilty to one charge of failing to provide and maintain safe plant and one charge of failing to provide workers with necessary information, instruction and training, the company — Retired AKZ Pty Ltd, formerly known as AKZ Reinforcing Pty Ltd — was sentenced in the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 2 July.
Retired AKZ had a history of workplace health and safety offending, the court heard, and was last December convicted and fined $146,000 over three separate similar incidents with bending machines at the workplace. Over this incident, the company was convicted and fined $90,000. The company was also ordered to pay costs of $5023.
Regulator comment
“This company’s failure to learn from previous incidents should be a major red flag to workers and the industry at large,” WorkSafe Victoria Executive Director of Health and Safety Sam Jenkin said, adding that the regulator has no tolerance for employers who repeatedly ignored their health and safety obligations.
“WorkSafe keeps a watchful eye on businesses known for putting workers at risk and will continue taking enforcement action when appropriate,” Jenkin said. “Aside from the obvious — protecting workers from harm, avoiding tragedies and upholding legal duties — a company that prioritises health and safety generally has better reputation, stronger staff retention and less expenses in the long run.”
To manage risks when working with machinery, WorkSafe Victoria advised that employers should:
- identify hazards, assess the risks associated with them and eliminate or control those risks by isolating them or using an alternative;
- train staff in the safe operation of machines and equipment and provide written procedures in the worker’s first language;
- develop and implement safe operating procedures in consultation with employees and health and safety representatives;
- ensure safety guards and gates are compliant and fixed to machines at all times;
- regularly service and inspect machines and equipment; and
- place signs on or near a machine to alert employees of the dangers of operating it.
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