Fast-food chain KFC has been fined more than $100,000 two years after a 16-year-old worker tripped and fell into a vat of hot cooking oil, suffering third-degree burns.
The teenager suffered severe burns to 9 per cent of his body, including his lower back, buttocks, right elbow and left shoulder.
He was on only his fifth three-hour shift at the KFC outlet in the Adelaide suburb of Eastwood when he fell into the 51-litre tank, which was about half full.
He was one of three cooks and two trainees working in the store on May 15, 2015, and was responsible for flouring, cooking and "racking" chicken pieces.
A 17-year-old colleague was showing a trainee how to clean an oil filter in one of the cookers and left the vat of oil on the floor, behind the cooking station.
The 16-year-old cook was not warned the tank was behind him. He stepped backwards, tripped and fell into the vat.
An assistant manager pulled him out, helped him to a sink and ran cold water over his burns until an ambulance arrived.
Two hours after the incident, the temperature of the oil was measured at 108 degrees, but it would have been much hotter when the teen fell in.
He spent two weeks in hospital, but his painful healing process lasted much longer and had a major impact on a crucial year in his schooling, South Australia's Industrial Relations Court heard last month.
The teen has been left with permanent scarring, extreme sensitivity to UV light and lower back pain due to damaged nerve endings.
In a judgment published on Monday, magistrate Stephen Lieschke found the fried chicken franchise had failed to provide and maintain safe practices for cleaning its industrial-sized cookers.
Although KFC had identified the hazard of hot surfaces, Mr Lieschke said, it had failed to specifically address the hazard of hot oil and where the used oil tanks should be placed once they had been removed from cookers.
"As a result, a 17-year-old trainer, a necessarily inexperienced youth, was left to work out a system for performing the task and instructing new employees, in this instance as to an unsafe procedure," he said.
"I accept that KFC did have a system of training that included some online learning, on-the-job training and skills assessment, together with general safety awareness instructions for trainers. However, the system was clearly deficient, as admitted."
Mr Lieschke reduced the initial penalty of $175,000 due to KFC's early guilty plea, and handed the company a fine of $105,000.
The teenager, who returned to work at the fast-food outlet just six weeks after the incident, received $73 a week in workers' compensation for the time he spent recovering.
He still works for KFC. After hearing his victim impact statement in court, the company gave him $15,000 in reparations.
KFC has changed its cleaning practices and no longer uses water in cleaning oil filters.
"The cookers are now self-filtering, so employees are no longer required to rinse cookers with warm water," Mr Lieschke said.
The oil tanks are now removed once every two or three weeks when cool for an oil change.
SafeWork SA acting executive director Dini Soulio said the case highlighted the need for businesses to identify foreseeable risks to health and safety.
"When young workers are involved, business operators should be particularly mindful of ensuring they are aware of the hazards and risks in the workplace and are trained in safe systems of work," Mr Soulio said.
Also in 2015, another 16-year-old KFC worker was severely burnt. The teenager was emptying a cooker at the KFC outlet at North Geelong, in Victoria, when scalding hot liquid splashed over his face and body.