A Balcatta machining and heavy metal fabrication company will fork out more than $250,000 over an incident that caused serious injuries to a worker including permanent eye damage.
Twoex Pty Ltd, trading as West City Engineering, was charged with failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment, which caused serious harm to an employee.
The company pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court yesterday and was fined $250,000 and ordered to pay $5,990 in costs, WorkSafe said in a statement.
The workplace incident occurred in May 2021, when an employee was told to complete a task on a press brake machine at the company’s workshop in Balcatta.
According to WorkSafe, a section of the machine broke free and hit the worker in the face, while he was bending a piece of titanium.
The worker suffered serious and permanent facial injuries including 47 facial fractures, a 15-centimetre laceration and permanent eye damage.
WorkSafe commissioner Sally North said the injured worker was an experienced fabricator and did understand the risks and control measures over the press brake operation.
However, Ms North said it was not routine for him to work on titanium, which has different properties to metals.
“This case should serve as a reminder to workplaces using potentially hazardous machinery that risk assessments need to be undertaken for each task, especially when the task is not undertaken regularly, as these assessments are fundamental to making sure the right safety controls are identified and used,” she said.
Ms North said it was disappointing that workplaces were not conducting risk assessments for non-routine work.
“The court heard that no formal risk assessment or job hazard analysis was performed to identify the potential risks involved in this particular job,” she said in a statement.
“It was reasonably practicable for the company to ensure that its employees did not bump press titanium without safeguards in place to eliminate or minimise any risks to workers’ safety.
“The company did have a safe work procedure for the press brake, but it was kept in the office and only shown to workers when they were learning how to use the machine and was not regularly consulted or reviewed.”
