The apprentice, who was 17 at the time, had been working at a Kyabram metal fabricators for 10 weeks when he caught on fire while welding.
CND Contractors Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to WorkSafe charges of failing to provide a safe workplace and failing to provide supervision.
Prosecutor Danielle Chiaverini said the former CND apprentice’s clothing ignited while he was fabricating a footing cage with a welder on October 31, 2023.
He spent one month in The Alfred hospital’s burns unit, and underwent several operations, including skin grafts.
Ms Chiaverini said the teenager was wearing insufficient protection and wasn’t signed off as competent on his induction training.
The court heard the company was on notice about employees wearing CND-branded hoodies while welding, due to an incident a month earlier where the apprentice burned a pocket off.
The apprentice told WorkSafe inspectors there were no rules about what to wear, and after the first incident the boss told him something like “it’s common for people to catch on fire while welding”, Ms Chiaverini said.
In a victim impact statement Ms Chiaverini read to the court, the teenager said he nearly cried every time he looked in the mirror, and was drained from putting on a fake smile every day.
“I didn’t get to spend a single day of my adult life looking like a normal person,” he said.
He said after coming from nothing he’d been at a good point in life, but after the incident he had to sell most of his belongings to survive.
CND’s defence barrister Anna Dixon said the event was “unexpected”, and her client was remorseful.
She said CND was a “hands-on business” that was established in 2008, and had five employees who all worked there at the time of the incident.
Ms Dixon said the company wasn’t “raking it in” or in a position to pay a substantial fine, and could be placed into liquidation.
However, Ms Chiaverini said there was no evidence of this.
Ms Dixon said a key legal principle in the case was that the consequences of the incident didn’t determine how the court assessed the gravity of the breach.
She told the court two staff members were supervising the apprentice nearby when he caught fire.
She also said CND had a good record, with no prior WorkSafe fines.
Ms Dixon said while the apprentice wouldn’t have caught fire if he was wearing appropriate protective clothing, a forensic expert said they weren’t sure why the teenager’s clothing would’ve “caught quite as spectacularly as it did”.
She said her client was aware that using a welder could put out sparks, but “never in his experience has he seen someone catch fire”.
Since the incident, CND has reviewed its systems, and strongly reinforced with employees the use of personal protective equipment — including not wearing hoodies while working.
It also had an emergency shower installed, added two more fire extinguishers and a fire blanket, and made an instructional video for making footings.
The matter will return to court mid-August for sentence.