On 8 May 2025, a metal fabrication company was fined $75,000 in the Dalby Magistrates Court for breaching section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) (‘the Act’), having failed to comply with its primary health and safety duty.

The defendant operates a business manufacturing and designing planting equipment. It engaged a 17-year-old apprentice at its business.

In December 2022, the apprentice was tasked with using a hydraulic press to press pieces of pipe into a mould. The press was operated by a handheld lever. The apprentice had previously been shown how to use this machine. There was no documented safe operating procedure for the press.

On the day in question, another worker was intermittently watching over the apprentice, but she was otherwise unsupervised. Around midday, the apprentice was momentarily distracted and the hydraulic ram was lowered onto her left hand. The apprentice was in hospital for 10 days and suffered extensive injuries to her left hand, including the complete amputation of one of her fingers, nerve and vein repairs and vein graft to her thumb, nerve and artery repair to her left middle finger and nerve repair to her left ring finger. The apprentice requires ongoing treatment.

The defendant accepted it had failed to implement reasonably practicable measures to eliminate or minimise the risk. The defendant ought to have:

• implemented an engineering control on the press to ensure the press required two hands to operate;
• developed a documented standard operating procedure for the task of using the press; and
• implemented the above procedure through the provision of training, supervision and periodic compliance audits.

The defendant entered an early plea of guilty, had no prior convictions and cooperated with the regulator.

The learned Magistrate fined the defendant company $75,000.

OWHSP contact: enquiries@owhsp.qld.gov.au