The court handed down fines to Salmat divisions Salmat Document Management Solutions and associated company Hermes Precisa Australia (HPA), which Salmat acquired in 2007.
According to a statement from SafeWork SA, the incident occurred at HPA's premises at Edwardstown in south Adelaide in May 2008.
"A male plant operator was working with a large guillotine to remove the spines from stationery, when his fingertips were crushed by the clamp of the machine, necessitating their eventual amputation," said the statement.
SafeWork SA investigated and prosecuted the case, where it found that "the employee had received only verbal training and instruction on the use of the machine, and was required to use a wooden block to square up stacks of papers that were to be trimmed".
The organisation told the court that the wooden block was insufficient to protect the worker's hand and that neither company provided safe systems of work for the task involved. It also tendered that a purpose-built blocking tool intended to protect the operator's hand had been lost a year previously.
HPA and Salmat both pleaded guilty to breaches of the Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act. While the companies operated from separate premises at the time, they were both under the operational control of Salmat. HPA is now officially a part of Salmat's Business Force division.
Magistrate Stephen Lieschke fined Hermes $26,400 and Salmat $22,400, taking into account the early guilty pleas, cooperation and contrition of both companies.
"Salmat did have comprehensive [OHS] systems prior to the incident. These, however, had not been applied to the operations of Hermes which continued with its separate but inferior systems in the six months of common ownership and single management," he said.
A Salmat spokesperson told ProPrint that the company "sincerely regrets" and "accepts full responsibility" for the accident, and that it co-operated fully with SafeWork SA.
"Salmat stopped using the equipment immediately after the incident and put in place appropriate measures to ensure it does not happen again," the spokesperson said.
"Salmat has fully supported the employee through the process and we are pleased that the employee is still a valuable member of our team."
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