Judge Trevor Wraight found Ace Metal Treatment Services had seriously departed from its duty to maintain a safe workplace at its Delacombe factory, where an employee was crushed in a machine two years ago.

He said the sentence imposed could in no way be a measure of deceased employee Greg Allie's life, but needed to send a message about the importance of workplace safety.

"General deterrence is the predominant sentencing consideration," Judge Wraight said.

"Sentences need to draw attention to the importance of workplace safety, and send a message to employers that failure to mitigate risks will attract a significant punishment."

Acknowledging the charge - failing to provide and maintain a safe plant - was in relation to the risks at the factory and not the death itself, he took a number of other factors into consideration for sentencing, including the company's "consistent cooperation with the investigation and prosecution".

It entered a guilty plea at the "earliest opportunity", had no prior convictions and had responded to the incident by employing measures to mitigate risks at the plant.

He said these safety measures went "over and above" what was expected and included an interlock gate - eliminating the risk that "gave rise to this incident".

Mr Allie, an employee of 20-years with Ace Metal Treatment Services, was one of three people working at the Williamson Street workplace - which undertakes metal heat treat and surface finishing works - on the morning of October 29, 2019.

Two of the employees were performing maintenance in a different part of the workplace to the machine when the major alarm sounded around 10am.

The court heard this was not uncommon, and one of the employees approached the machine, switched the alarm off and walked along the walkway.

It was then he saw Mr Allie trapped in the machine and tried to free him.

Mr Allie sustained significant chest injuries as a result of the compression and the 50-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

An autopsy later found Mr Allie had 13 fractured ribs and a fractured sternum.

Earlier in the court process the court was told there was no regular maintenance schedule for the machinery prior to the incident and an expert commissioned by Worksafe had found the machine was in a generally unsafe condition with no safety protocols in place.

The expert said the walkway adjacent to the machine was strewn with debris, switches were missing or corroded, meaning the machine would not stop if there was an obstruction, while an emergency stop button was not operational.

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Judge Wraight said the company had administrative controls in place to prevent access to the line, meaning it was aware of the dangers and the risk, but had not installed the engineering solutions to keep workers safe.

"In my view it is a relatively serious departure from its duties to maintain a safe system of work. It was aware of the risk by implementing administrative controls."

But in the months after Mr Allie's death, the company took measures to make the worksite safer including undertaking repairs, covering exposed wires, installing access gates and hand rails along the walkway.

His brother Dean Allie read his victim impact statement to the County Court last week, revealing the pain and devastation his family had experienced since Mr Allie's death.

He said his brother was loyal, big hearted, generous, hard-working and fiercely competitive and his family was experiencing "great sadness" as they tried to move on without him in their lives.

The maximum penalty for failing to maintain safe systems of work is more than $1.4 million.

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