A South Australian packaging company has been handed its sixth conviction in the Industrial Court after a printer operator suffered a crush injury to his hand.

Pope Packaging received a penalty of $51,000 plus court costs imposed by the Industrial Court after entering an early guilty plea. 

The company’s latest breach occurred when a full-time printer operator was working on a printer and noticed a fault. On inspection of the problem his right thumb was crushed between the print plate and a roller.  

All of the company’s prior offences involve crush injuries to employees’ hands from inadequately guarded rollers. Three of these incidents took place in 1997, one in 2003 and one in 2007.

SafeWork SA subsequently launched an investigation into the incident. Pope Packaging was then charged with failing its health and safety duty to provide safe operating procedures, maintain adequate supervision, have adequate guarding installed, and a safe work system.

Commenting on the case, SafeWork SA executive director Marie Boland says, “It is concerning that this is the sixth time Pope Packaging has been prosecuted for a breach of work health and safety laws and repeat offending does raise questions about the safety culture and leadership of a business.”

Australian Printer contacted Pope Packaging for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

SafeWork SA has indicated it will be undertaking a compliance program which targets repeat offenders to ensure those business leaders are meeting their work health and safety due diligence obligations.

Pope Packaging was established in Kent Town, Adelaide in 1956. The company’s operations have since expanded across Australia to Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia as well as New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the USA.

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