Bundaberg company fined $30,000 after worker injured while cleaning mushroom machine
Date issued: 2009-02-26
A Bundaberg mushroom farm has been fined $30,000 and its executive officer $6,000 after a worker was injured in July 2007.
Chermond Mushroom Farm Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the Bundaberg Industrial Magistrates Court on 10 February 2009 to breaching section 24 of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, having failed to ensure workplace safety.
Executive officer Raymond Keith Orreal also pleaded guilty to having failed to ensure the company complied with its safety obligations.
The court heard a mushroom peat mixing machine was inadvertently activated while a worker was inside cleaning it. The worker sustained cuts and crush injuries to the chest and right leg.
The Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigation revealed the mixer did not have a guard, an auger inside could not be isolated and there was no interlocking device on the machine.
Further, it found that the executive officer:
- had designed the machine but had not produced an instruction or operations manual
- had not conducted a formal induction for workers
- was a “hands on” director who knew of the activities relating to the use of the machine.
As a result of the incident, the company took steps to ensure such an incident is not repeated by installing interlocking devices and guarding on the machine and conducting a safety audit of the workplace.
Industrial Magistrate Mr Paul Smith, in addition to the fine, also ordered the company pay investigation costs of $3,400 and court costs of $130.80.
No conviction was recorded against the company or the executive officer due to their previous good records, cooperation with the investigation and early guilty pleas.
The prosecution was brought by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, a division of the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations.
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