Government of Western Australia | A hay processing company in regional WA has been fined $595,000 (and ordered to pay $5,510 in costs) over a serious injury to a worker.
HA Hold Co Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious harm to a worker, and was fined in the Northam Magistrates Court.
In January 2023, a leading hand was working under a labour hire arrangement at the hay processing plant at Carani in the Wheatbelt, operating a small hay press.
He climbed through an unguarded area onto the press’s conveyor belt to rearrange some hay bales that had become twisted in front of a chamber in which hay bales were cut in half.
He was pushed by the mechanical arm that pushes hay bales into the cutting chamber, and his leg became trapped in the chamber. His leg was fractured, and he suffered a degloving injury.
The conveyor belt did have interlocked gates on the opposite side from where this incident occurred, and opening these gates stopped the conveyor belt.
However, workers had previously accessed the conveyor belt while it was moving by reaching over the conveyor belt and pushing the twisted hay bales. This was faster and more convenient than walking around to the other side of the conveyor to the interlocked gates.
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