A LABOUR hire company has been fined $27,500 after worker’s fingers were crushed in an unguarded machine.
Skilled Group pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace, and failing to ensure a workplace was safe before allowing its workers to attend the workplace.
The company had supplied a worker to Bestbar, a manufacturer and supplier of steel reinforcing products. In August 2005, the worker was using a radius machine to shape steel bars into circles.
The machine was fitted with a guard which was not interlocked. The machine could operate with the guard open.
When the worker arrived for night shift the guard on the machine was open, and he left it in that position because it was not possible to shape the steel bars into circles if the guard was closed.
While bending steel bars into circles, the man’s glove was dragged into the pinch point between the bar and the roller where the bar is bent around.
The resulting crush injury to the man’s right hand resulted in partial amputation of three fingers. They had to be surgically reattached.
Bestbar was fined $30,000 in December 2007 over this incident.
According to WorkSafe WA, both labour hire companies and host companies have responsibility for the safety and health of labour hire workers.
After the incident, the host and owner of the machine manufactured and fitted a guard over the machine that did not allow the machine to be operated when it was opened and which allowed steel bars to be bent into circles while the guard was closed.

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