Guard lack leads to $30,000 fine

Bassendean steel company West Australian Steel Sales and Trading has been fined $30,000 for failing to provide a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious harm to an employee.

The company pleaded guilty to the charge in the Perth Court of Petty Sessions.

A 16 year old employee in his first week on the job had three fingers partially amputated and another two fingers crushed when both his hands were caught beneath the blade of a 60-tonne brake press.

The space in which the employee’s hands were trapped should have been guarded by a light beam that stops the machine operating if part of a person is within its sensing field.

The light guard had not been operating for the previous two weeks but the company had failed to have it repaired.

WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said the case provided a timely warning that employers had a legal responsibility to ensure machinery was adequately guarded.