Government of Western Australia | A meat processing co-operative has been fined $785,000 (and ordered to pay more than $5,700 in costs) over the death of a worker at a Katanning abattoir in 2022.
Western Australian Meat Marketing Co-operative Ltd (WAMMCO) pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment and, by that failure, causing the death of a worker and was fined in the Albany Magistrates Court.
In December 2022, an abattoir worker was killed after becoming entangled in an item of plant known as a “cake press” while working at the Katanning Abattoir operated as part of the WAMMCO co-operative.
The Katanning Abattoir processes lamb for human consumption and by-products for animal feed and biofuel. The incident occurred in the “rendering shed,” an area where products not intended for human consumption were processed.
The worker was carrying out a daily shutdown procedure for which a work instruction was to be followed.
The process involved the worker emptying hessian bags of meat meal weighing 25kg-to-30kg into an open hopper to clean out the cake press which contained paddles that needed to be rotating during the procedure.
While in the process of emptying a bag into the hopper, the worker was drawn into the large opening of the cake press, suffering fatal crush injuries.
