Worker loses 2 fingers in vegetable slicer

A company has been ordered to pay more than $50,000 after an employee had two fingers chopped off in a vegetable slicer.

The company was found guilty of failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing the employee serious harm. The company was fined $40,000 and ordered to pay $12,000 in costs.

The business produced ready-made salads for supply to supermarkets and contained several machines to cut and slice the produce, one of which was a belt slicer. An employee was operating the machine and wanted to clear some vegetable matter from the chamber.

He hit the emergency stop button and put his hand into the chamber, not knowing that the emergency stop button and interlock were not functioning because of a fault in the electrical relay.

The blades were still spinning when he put his hand in and two of his fingers were amputated to the middle knuckle.

WorkSafe acting executive director Ian Munns said the case illustrated how important it was to have lock-out and tagging procedures at workplaces with machinery. "It's never safe to leave any piece of machinery operational while doing repairs or performing maintenance" he said.

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Source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2012/11/01/20/20/40-000-fine-for-finger-slice-accident