A commercial cleaning company has been convicted and fined $30,000 after a worker’s hand was crushed at a Cobram meat processing facility.
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Sanikleen Pty Ltd pleaded guilty at the Shepparton Magistrate’s Court to one charge of failing to supervise its employees so that they could perform their work in a way that was safe and without risk to health.
The court heard that on 26 May 2015, a worker was cleaning an evisceration table - a line of offal trays moving continuously on a chain - when he reached down into a drainage channel underneath to retrieve some waste meat.
The trays were moving when the worker’s hand became trapped between a tray and the channel.
The court was told the worker could not reach the emergency stop and his co-workers could not see or hear him.
Worksafe said he was able to remove his hand once the tray passed over it, but suffered a broken wrist and tendon and nerve damage and missed two months’ work.
A lock out procedure to ensure the table was isolated from energy sources during cleaning was not being followed on the day.
They were ordered to pay $9000 costs.
This is the fourth time Sanikleen has been convicted and fined over workplace safety breaches.
In December 2014 the company was convicted and fined $100,000 after a worker injured his hand while trying to clean a moving conveyor belt in Wodonga.
In May 2012 the company was convicted and fined $100,000 after a worker’s hand became trapped while cleaning a meat processing machine in Werribee, and in September 2005 Sanikleen was convicted and fined $40,000 when a worker’s arm was de-gloved when it became entangled in an unguarded conveyor belt in Seymour.
WorkSafe’s health and safety executive director Marnie Williams said Sanikleen’s latest incident demonstrated that safe systems were of no use unless companies ensured that employees followed them.
“Devising a safe system for workers to complete tasks is just the first step in avoiding injury,” she said.
“Employees also need to be supervised to ensure they understand and use the system set out for them.”