Peter Schmidt and Ashley Schmidt pleaded guilty to Category 2 offences under section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA) and were sentenced in the South Australian Employment Court on 20 November 2024 following a SafeWork SA investigation.

The incident took place at the Mount Seven Piggery, operated in partnership by Peter and Ashley Schmidt, on 15 September 2022.

The piggery employee was performing a task that involved loading pig feed into a tractor mill, driving it to a silo and transferring the feed from the tractor mill to the silo with the use of an auger.

The auger had a rotating part called a flight, which transfers the feed from the basin, upwards into the silo. The lower section of the auger which sat in the basin was not guarded.

Having transferred the feed to the silo, the worker was walking around the auger to reach the controls when she tripped and fell, extending her hands to break her fall. Her right hand landed on the rotating auger flight , severely lacerating her thumb and severing the middle three fingers.

The SafeWork SA investigation found that the auger had a guard fitted when it was purchased in 2019 and a risk assessment conducted by the Schmidts identified guarding as a control measure to reduce risk of harm.

A Safe Use of Plant, Guards and Augers policy at the piggery was also in place, requiring guards to be fitted to any machinery where moving parts were a hazard.

However, contrary to its own policy, the guard was removed and was not in place when the worker was trained to use the auger, or on the day of the incident.

SafeWork SA inspectors prohibited the use of the auger until the risk posed by the unguarded flight was eliminated.

An additional seven statutory notices were also issued by SafeWork SA in relation to other safety breaches at the piggery, which have all now been complied with.

The Schmidts actively supported the injured worker through her treatment and recovery, and she was able to return to full time work in April 2023.

Peter and Ashley Schmidt pleaded guilty to the charges, were each fined $21,600 and had convictions recorded.

In sentencing, Deputy President Magistrate Eaton said the Schmidts breached their health and safety duty by requiring workers to operate an auger with an unguarded rotating flight and by their failure to ensure that the auger was not used unless there was a guard fitted.

Her honour said the offending was objectively very serious and without excuse.

“This Court continues to deal with the consequences of injury from unguarded machinery in workplaces,” Magistrate Eaton said.
“The risk is objectively obvious, as are the solutions.

“The risk was explicitly recognised by the defendants when they first purchased the auger, and they had a policy in place in relation to managing such risks in their operations. They just did not follow their own policy or risk assessment in practice.”

Quotes attributable to SafeWork SA Executive Director Glenn Farrell.

We continue to see far too many incidents resulting in serious injury or death as the result of guarding being non-existent, inadequate, removed or by-passed in some way.

This business has had a serious wake-up call from this incident and has been graphically reminded of the importance of committing themselves fully to their work, health and safety responsibilities.

It should not take an avoidable life-changing injury to a worker to trigger an employer’s responsibilities.

Policies are a waste of time in not properly embedded and enforced in a workplace. This incident could easily have been avoided if the company had ensured the auger was appropriately guarded, as a control identified in their own risk assessment, and their workers and those supervising were appropriately trained in this basic requirement.