Cheesemaker fined $50K after workplace amputations

A Melbourne cheesemaker has been fined $50,000 after two workers had fingers amputated while working machinery. Australian Dairy Packaging Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Friday to two charges of failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment. The company was fined $25,000, without conviction, for failing to provide and maintain plant that was safe and without risks to health and $25,000 for failing to provide a safe system of work. It came after a worker in March 2019 was operating a machine known as a ribbon blender, which blended cheese products using two spiral blades. The worker reached inside the blender’s discharge chute to clear a blockage when the revolving blades amputated one of his fingers and severely injured another. He spent two months in hospital and had three operations to reattach the fingers. After the incident, the company complied with an improvement notice requiring that it ensure appropriate guarding was used to prevent access to the ribbon blender‘s danger area. But two months later, another worker lost multiple fingers when she reached inside the discharge chute opening, while the blender was running and after the new guarding had been removed so the machine could be cleaned. The court heard it was reasonably practicable for the company to implement a lockout and tag-out procedure to prevent the machine being switched on during cleaning. WorkSafe acting executive director of health and safety, Adam Watson, said in both incidents, much more should have been done to control the risks posed by the machine. “Having two severe incidents on the same machine over such a short time frame is a clear sign this company wasn’t taking the health and safety of its workers seriously enough,” Mr Watson said. “Sadly as a result, two workers are now dealing with life-changing injuries that could have easily been prevented.” The company was also ordered to pay $3,131 in costs.