Staff paid nothing worked safely without touching (5-4)
I believe the answer is:
hands-free
'staff paid nothing worked safely without' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'touching' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'touching' could be 're' (both can mean concerning or relating to) and 're' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hands-free that I've seen before include "Type of phone" , "Not involving manual operation" .)