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Thursday 17th November 2016
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Warehouse fined $50,000 for knocking out truckie
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In today's Health & Safety Bulletin:
- Appeal convicts company and increases penalty from $7,000
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 | A company’s failure to enact its safe working procedures and traffic management plan has cost it more than $50,000 and a conviction. The Victorian warehouse operator was convicted and fined $50,000 in the County Court over an incident in which a truck driver was injured by a falling 185kg wool bale. |
The truck driver, a sub-contractor, was knocked unconscious and suffered a leg injury in the incident, forcing him off work for two weeks.
Winnipeg Textiles Pty Ltd in Footscray was originally found guilty in June by the Melbourne Magistrates Court and was charged with breaching the 2004 OHS Act by failing to ensure persons other than employees were not exposed to risks to their health and safety. The company was fined $7,000 without conviction. It was also ordered to pay costs of $2,649.
But following a successful appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions, the County Court upped the penalty to $50,000 and upheld the original costs of $2,649 as well.
Unloading process
Each week the Winnipeg Textiles warehouse received about 6,000 wool bales – the average bale weighing 185kg – from numerous transport companies and subcontractors.
The delivery area of the warehouse features a designated truck parking bay, signage advising drivers to remain in cabins or in safety areas while forklifts are in operation, and markings outlining pedestrian exclusion zones.
As standard practice, the company deploys three forklifts for unloading flat top trailers and curtain-sided trucks – two forklifts to unload bales from opposite sides of the trailer while a third forklift takes the bales from the unloading area into the warehouse.
The court heard on 1 April 2015, the 60-year-old sub-contractor drove his truck into the warehouse to deliver 24 wool bales. He arrived at the designated unloading area and got out of his truck to ready his trailer for unloading.
But while doing this, he was struck by a bale that had been dislodged by one of the two forklift operators who had already begun to unload the trailer.
The subcontractor was knocked unconscious and suffered a head injury and ligament damage to his knee. He spent two days in hospital and was off work for two weeks, returning later to reduced hours and modified duties. |
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No action on safe working procedures
The court heard that the company failed to provide delivery drivers with a site induction or explain safety procedures. Forklift operators were provided only with verbal instructions on safety requirements, and the responsibility for adhering to these practices was left to operators and drivers.
The company also had a traffic management plan in place but the Court was told it failed to ensure it was adhered to.
WorkSafe Victoria Executive Director Health and Safety Marnie Williams said it was exasperating when companies prepared safe working procedures but did not put them into action.
She said it was lucky that the driver wasn’t killed in the incident.
“It’s a constant source of frustration for WorkSafe when a company has a safe system written down on paper yet doesn’t put that into action to prevent these kinds of incidents.
“Employers have an obligation to ensure everyone that comes into contact with their workplace understands the risks at the site and the controls in place. Do not leave safety to chance,” she said.
What you can do
Do you have safe working procedures that are tucked away in a filing cabinet or buried on a hard drive in a back office somewhere? Is anyone at your company enforcing them? If so, are they outdated and you are leaving workers to determine their own safe practices?
Are you only a day away from a serious incident because you’ve been lucky that no-one at your business has been hurt recently?
Don’t take any more chances. Subscribe to the Health & Safety Handbook, written in plain English by the legal experts at Holding Redlich. The legal advice, hints, tips, downloadable and editable templates and checklists will ensure you cover all the bases of health and safety at your workplace.
Use it to review your current safe working procedures, create new or improved ones, identify risks and hazards to workers and visitors, as well as catch up on changes to health and safety laws in your jurisdiction. There’s even chapters on Traffic Management (T1) and Road Transport Worker Safety (R2), Incident Reporting and Investigation (I1) and Vehicle Safety (V1).
Take an obligation-free trial of the Handbook and see how you can put it to work at your company.
Keep up the good work,
Jeff Salton
Editor, Health & Safety Bulletin
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