AUSTRALIA'S meat and poultry industry is under review after a worker was decapitated while cleaning a fast moving machine at a Melbourne factory, ABC News reports.
In August this year, Sarel Singh, 34, was killed instantly when he was sucked into a machine and decapitated while working at a Baiada poultry processing plant in Melbourne's west.
A preliminary report on the workplace death, obtained by ABC's Lateline, found Australia's largest poultry manufacturer had breached occupational health and safety laws by not controlling risks at the plant, ABC News reports.
WorkSafe Victoria told Lateline the entire industry was now also under review.
It said, when it came to workplace safety, employers needed to do more than the bare minimum and that they were responsible for all of their employees.Tim Kennedy from the National Union of Workers (NUW) was horrified by the incident.
"It is absolutely horrific in a civilised society that we have now the fact that these things still occur, it is just not acceptable," he said, according to ABC News.
Six weeks earlier, Lateline revealed Baiada was already under investigation over claims of unlawful and unethical treatment of its majority migrant workforce.
Singh's brother, Harry, said Sarel had immigrated from India four years ago in the hope of finding a better life in Australia.
But he said his brother had found his job at Baiada "hell" and that he was planning on returning to India.
"He used to say that life working at that place was like a hell. It's a very hard job and he was tired of that job. But due to the burden of the loans and debts over here and in Australia too, he had to work over there and he was struggling hard."According to NUW, Sarel had just finished a four-hour shift when he was asked to go back and re-clean a pack line area.
Sarel was standing on a ladder hosing the area down when he was swept into a machine and decapitated.
Mr Kennedy said Sarel was not familiar with the line and that the chain line should have been stopped while it was being cleaned.
"Over time what has happened is the company, to maintain production, to maintain the returns they want to get, has pushed the risk to workers by speeding that chain up so they have run the chain 20 to 40 birds per minute and people have been asked to clean it," Mr Kennedy said, according to ABC News.
"The night on which Mr Singh was killed the chain was running at absolute capacity."
The WorkSafe Victoria report confirmed the line was operating at the top speed of 183 birds a minute and that "by not adequately controlling the risks associated with this plant, [Baiada poultry] is in contravention of the requirements of section 21(1) and 21(2)(A) of the occupational health and safety act," ABC News reports.
Lateline reportedly sought comment from both Baiada and Ecowize, the company contracted to clean the production areas of the poultry plant, but had received no response.
Harry told ABC News he was in shock over his brother's death.
"How can I believe it? My brother, he was my real brother and only brother," he said
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/business-smarts/workplace-safety-fears-after-poultry-worker-decapitated-at-baiada-plant/story-e6frfm9r-1225964948956#ixzz1DWXtppri
