A company in New South Wales’ Hunter region has been fined $240,000 after a teenage work experience student suffered permanent eye injury after welding for up to five hours.
The 15 year old student suffered retinal thermal burns, otherwise known as “flash burns” to both eyes whilst welding on his first morning of work experience.
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal overturned a decision not to convict and fine the company, which is now in liquidation, over the incident. Instead the company has been fined for “wholly disregarding” the safety of the work experience student.
The teen was not told of the need to use UV darkening lens during an induction. During the first five hours on the job, the teenager performed 37 welds, sometimes within a few metres from his supervisor. After this time, he told his supervisor his eyes were “going blurry” and the welding lights were “very bright”. The supervisor inspected his helmet and he was told to continue. It wasn’t until over an hour later that a fellow employee saw the teen still welding with the visor still up.
When asked why he was welding with the visor up, the teen had said he didn’t know he had to wear the visor down. The teenager had welded before at school, however the school’s visors were all fitted with the UV protectors, compared with the company’s helmets which had a visor that could be flipped up and down.
However the judge presiding over the case deemed the victim as young and otherwise vulnerable, and determined the injuries sustained to be a direct result of a continuing failure by the company and its employees to appreciate what was occurring, not a result of an act of negligence or inattention.
The teenager was off school for six weeks and has been left with a 75 percent bilateral visual incapacity, and requiring visual aids to assist him completing classroom activities.
This unfortunate incident highlights the severe consequences of workplace injuries, and in the case of this eye injury, the on-going impact to this teen’s life.
If you undertake welding in your workplace, do you have appropriate controls and training in place to protect your workers from eye injury or other hazards? Click here for information from SafeWork SA regarding welding processes.
