A South Australian juice company has been fined $120,000 after a young factory worker had her entire scalp torn from her head in a workplace incident.
Nippy’s Waikerie Producers Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the SA Employment Tribunal to breaching health and safety laws over the “traumatic” incident and received a criminal conviction.
In November 2020, an 18-year-old employee was working at the company’s orange packing shed in Waikerie when her hair became tangled in a piece of unguarded machinery.
“In an instant, her young and hopeful life flipped into shock, trauma, ongoing pain and disfigurement,” deputy president Magistrate Katherine Eaton said in her findings.
“She endured not only the pain and shock of her physical injury, but the terror of looking up and seeing her hair and scalp hanging from the machine in front of her.
“She thought she was going to die.”
The judgement said the incident happened after the young woman was asked to clear a blockage from a conveyor belt, while the machinery was still running.
Magistrate Eaton said the young woman had mentioned she and other workers had completed the same task multiple times before.
But an assessment undertaken by Nippy’s in September 2013 identified workers were at risk of possible injuries to “hands and hair” from unguarded machinery, Magistrate Eaton said.
“The risk [of harm] was not only foreseeable, it had actually been foreseen,” she said.
Recommendations following the assessment included installing more guards around the equipment. However, Nippy’s failed to implement such measures.
“It allowed a culture to develop on the floor of the plant where the risk was either unrecognised or ignored, and workers were expected to enter the area while the plant was operating to clear blockages,” Magistrate Eaton said.
Following the horrific incident, surgeons were only able to reattach part of the 18-year-old’s scalp.
“Despite the treatment that she has had and will continue to have, there is no escaping the permanent loss of a significant part of her hair and the scar tissue over her scalp where that hair used to be,” Magistrate Eaton said.
“Not surprisingly, she also suffers psychologically from the effects of the injury and her ongoing disability and disfigurement.”
Within 24 hours of the incident, one of Nippy’s directors, Jeffrey Knispel, apologised to the young woman’s family over the phone and offered $2,500 in immediate financial support.
This was followed by further payments of $2,500 and $50,000, as “reparation” and to help cover transport and accommodation costs while the victim underwent medical treatment.
Magistrate Eaton said Nippy’s also completed a risk assessment the day after the incident and immediately implemented safety recommendations.
“I take into account what I accept as the genuine personal and corporate remorse demonstrated by the immediate apology and offer of help,” Magistrate Eaton said.
“I take into account the positive steps taken by Nippy’s to upgrade its own attention to work health and safety and its efforts to promote work health and safety to the business community.
“In light of these factors I consider specific deterrence to be a lesser consideration, as I conclude the likelihood of Nippy’s reoffending to be low.”
Image credit: Google Street View & iStock / chanwangrong
