A Cannington printing company has been fined $36,000 after a female employee had part of her finger amputated on a perforating machine.

Crystal Printing Solutions Pty Ltd – trading as Worldwide Online Printing Cannington - pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment and causing serious harm to an employee in the Perth Magistrates Court this week.

In April 2007, the woman, who worked as a supervisor at Worldwide Online Printing, decided to perform a maintenance check on a numbering, perforating and cutting machine.

After removing the side panels of the machine, exposing the drive chains and cogs, she inadvertently turned the machine on while working on it.

The woman’s left-hand middle finger became caught in the exposed drive chain and cog, and the tip of the finger was amputated.

The employee had been given a safety and health manual that warned of the importance of isolating the machine when accessing the internal workings, but the contents of the manual had never been explained to her and she had not been given any training or instruction in isolation procedures.

The employer was aware that isolation tags were available on site but these had not been made readily available to employees.

WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said today the case highlighted two extremely important safety issues – lockout and tagging of machinery and training of workers.

"The reason the company was prosecuted was that it was entirely practicable for it to have ensured that its employees understood the contents of the safety and health manual, to have provided training and instruction in the isolation of plant and to have ensured that lockout tags were readily available to employees," Ms Lyhne said.

"The employer’s failure to take these actions has resulted in an employee losing part of her finger, and no doubt a great deal of suffering that could easily have been avoided.

"Many workers have been seriously injured and even killed when equipment or machinery they were working on has been accidentally activated, so it is absolutely crucial that safe systems of work are in place."