The County Court of Victoria has ordered a record fine, $400,000, for a single breach of the Occupational Health & Safety Act 2004 (Vic) (OH&S Act) sending a serious message to anyone with responsibilities under Victoria’s health and safety laws.
A small family company, DMP Poultech Pty Ltd, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, their undertaking did not expose people (other than employees) to health and safety risks in accordance with s23(1) of the OH&S Act.
On the night of 5 December 2005, a truck driver employed by Azzopardi Haulage Pty Ltd died when he was struck by a 550kg steel module used for transporting live chickens. The module was being fork-lifted on to the trailer of Mr Mario Azzopardi’s (the deceased) truck.. The forklift was being operated by a 16-year-old employee (the youth) of DMP Poultech Pty Ltd, who did not have a forklift licence and had not been formally trained. As the youth was loading the last of the modules on to the truck, the deceased began securing the load. As the youth removed an empty module from the truck, a full module next to it fell from the truck and landed on the deceased who was standing beside the forklift.
Although DMP Poultech Pty Ltd had a written work procedure on the use of the forklift for its own employees, there were no procedures in place to stop other people entering the area where the forklift was operating.
There had been previous occasions when modules had fallen from the type of forklift used during the loading process.
Though DMP Poultech Pty Ltd had no prior convictions, His Honour, Justice Gullaci held that the moral culpability of DMP Poultech Pty Ltd in this case was high and in his view the sentence and penalty imposed by the Court must be seen to denounce strongly the conduct of the company and deter others. He considered :
- potential for such an incident was obvious to DMP Poultech Pty Ltd and its employees;
- the forklift driver was allowed to load the trucks in high-risk circumstances without proper supervision or competencies; and
- written work procedure about the forklift was not followed in practice and failed to include the health and safety risks to people other than employees.
The Court imposed on DMP Poultech Pty Ltd a fine of $400,000. The fine is unlikely to be paid because the business has ceased trading.
- Safe work procedures must be developed for activities of both employees and other people who enter the worksite;
- safe work procedures must be followed in practice; and
- the supervision of untrained or unlicensed operators, particularly in high-risk circumstances, is critical.
Should you require further information in relation to this article, please contact Louise Houlihan, Partner, on 9608 2273 or l.houlihan@cornwalls.com.au
