WorkSafe Tasmania

WorkSafe Tasmania

Safe and well every day

2020 Court summaries

Machos Pty Ltd

November 2020

Machos Pty Ltd (trading as Nu Jet) has been fined $50,000 for a Category 2 offence under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012.

The incident

On 22 January 2018, a worker from Machos Pty Ltd struck an underground extra high voltage electrical cable with a pneumatic rock breaker while working on the roadway in front of 282 Argyle Street North Hobart. The subsequent flash ignited oil in the cable, causing the oil to burn.

The worker received burns to his face, both hands and torso. He was treated initially on site and admitted to hospital where he made a full recovery and returned to work.

Contributing factors

The WorkSafe Tasmania investigation found Machos Pty Ltd:

  • failed to undertake an adequate risk assessment and failed to provide adequate supervision
  • failed to notify TasNetworks of the work it was undertaking, so TasNetworks could provide onsite supervision.

The penalties

Machos Pty Ltd was charged with one count of failing to comply with a health and safety duty (category 2). It entered a guilty plea and was fined $50,000.

JBS Australia Pty Ltd

November 2020

JBS Australia Pty Ltd was prosecuted and fined $150,000 after a worker fell into a wash bath filled with hot water, causing serious injuries.

The incident

On 23 November 2016, a worker was performing his normal tasks in the offal/tripe room at the JBS Australia Pty Limited plant at Longford. He noticed the tripe had not fallen through the provided hole, but was still in the chute on top of the cooker.

In order to get the tripe into the cooker, the worker tried to dislodge it with a steel pole. When that was unsuccessful, he decided to use his hands. So he climbed up onto the edge of the pre-wash tub (that was full of hot water) and stepped onto the edge of the pre-wash basket that was immersed in the pre-wash tub. As he was manoeuvring the tripe through the hole into the cooker, he lost his footing and slipped into the tub of hot water, which was determined to have been 82 degrees Celsius.

The worker’s gumboots immediately filled with hot water, causing second and third degrees burns to both his legs from the knees down (including both feet).

The penalties

JBS Australia Pty Limited was convicted and fined for:

  • failing to comply with a health and safety duty: Category 2 under section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (fine of $130,000)
  • failing to consult with workers pursuant to section 47 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (fine of $20,000).

Pfeiffer Cranes Pty Ltd

May 2020

Pfeiffer Cranes Pty Ltd and one of its crane drivers were prosecuted after the crane driver's negligence caused a 1.9 tonne load of plaster to fall onto an Island Block and Paving Pty Ltd worker, causing serious injuries.

Pfeiffer Cranes was fined $50,000 and convicted and the crane driver received a 6 month suspended jail sentence.

The incident

On 7 April 2017, a worker of Island Block and Paving was working with a builder on a construction site in Trevallyn. A crane was being used to lift pallets of plaster to the first floor of the building under construction. The lifting was complicated when the builder asked the plaster to be placed further away from the crane.

The crane has a safety system stopping the crane from moving when it senses it has reached 75% of capacity. When the crane reaches 100% of its capacity, alarms and lights also sound, which are visible both inside and outside of the crane.

The crane driver overrode the safety system. On the fourth lift, while the load was being extended, the weight of the load caused the crane to fail and the boom to collapse, trapping the worker under the load. He sustained serious injuries.

A WorkSafe Tasmania investigation found the manual override had been used on more than 100 prior occasions.

The charges

Pfeiffer Cranes Pty Ltd was charged with:

  • one count of failing to comply with health and safety duty: Category 2 contrary to Section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012
  • one count of failing to comply with health and safety duty: Category 3 contrary to Section 33 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012.

The crane driver was charged with:

  • one count of failing to comply with health and safety duty: Category 1 contrary to Section 31 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012
  • one count of failing to comply with health and safety duty: Category 2 contrary to Section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012.

Reid Fruits Pty Ltd

January 2020

The incident

In January 2015, a casual worker employed by Reid Fruits Pty Ltd was loading lugs of cherries into bins onto a trailer for transportation.

The worker was a migrant with poor literacy and English language skills. Therefore he was inducted in the procedure for tractor/trailer mounting through two practical demonstrations, as it was thought he could not read or understand the written procedure.

At approximately 10:40 am, the worker attempted to mount the left hand sidestep as the trailer was moved forward by the tractor. He then either lost his balance or slipped, and his left leg was trapped between the step and the rotating wheel, pulling him under the wheel, and the trailer rode up onto the worker.

The worker suffered severe crush injuries to his abdomen, torso, and legs (it is estimated the trailer loaded with fruit weighed 2.5 tonnes). He passed away later that day due to his injuries.

The trailer:

  • was a self-loading bin trailer that raises and lowers hydraulically and draws bins onto the trailer with a chain conveyor on two tines/chassis rails
  • was not manufactured nor supplied with sidesteps. However, two sidesteps were added by the Reid Fruits’ production manager: one on each side of the trailer in front of the trailer wheel; mig-welded to the chassis rail.

Reid Fruits’ managing director was aware that these types of trailers are not supplied with sidesteps.

Findings

Inspectors from WorkSafe Tasmania investigating the incident found that Reid Fruits:

  • did not carry out a risk assessment of the system of work being used for transporting cherries from the orchard, to identify all hazards and implement effective integrated controls
  • did not carry out a risk assessment of the trailer to ensure the addition of the trailer sidesteps would be an effective control for the hazard of being run over while loading lugs in front of the trailer wheel
  • did not carry out a risk assessment for transporting workers on orchard trailers
  • did not monitor workers to ensure they were not using the trailer steps for transport about the orchard
  • did not have a position description for team leaders to identify their responsibilities for implementing the policies and procedures
  • did not monitor team leaders to ensure policies, procedures and instructions were enforced by team leaders.

The investigation also found:

  • the production manager installed the trailer sidesteps without the approval of the managing director
  • both of Reid Fruits’ production managers did not supervise the orchard effectively and identify the use of the trailer sidesteps by the workers
  • Reid Fruits’ management knew the understanding of written procedures, policies and verbal instructions to workers with English as a second language was poor.

The penalties

Reid Fruits Pty Ltd was charged with:

  • 1 count of fail to comply with a health and safety duty: Category 2, Section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012.

On 20 January 2020, in the Hobart Magistrates Court, Reid Fruits Pty Ltd was found guilty and fined $230,000 with a conviction recorded.

Last updated: 1 February 2023
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