On 13 August 2024, a company was sentenced in the Caloundra Magistrates Court for breaching section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (‘the Act’).

The defendant company conducted a business that specialises in building, servicing, and maintaining asphalt plants. It was a small business and, at the relevant time, had six staff members. It was engaged to install and commission new storage silos and associated infrastructure at an asphalt manufacturing plant. That new plant included a two-tonne asphalt bin and a rail system on which the bin could move up and down at an angle of approximately 45 degrees between the existing plant and the silos. That was to be used for measuring, moving, and depositing asphalt into trucks for transport to other locations.

On 8 February 2022, workers employed by the defendant were present at the workplace performing sanding and painting work as part of the final stages of the commissioning process. Those workers had been using an elevated work platform (‘EWP’) throughout the morning to access areas, including beneath the rail system. Throughout the day the bin was moved up and down along the rail system on multiple occasions, as part of testing and calibrating the new plant. The sole director of the defendant company was present at the workplace and was overseeing the commissioning works happening at the site.

One of the workers employed by the defendant company was in the basket of the EWP, which was positioned close to the rails, when it was struck and pushed upwards by the bin, as it moved up along the rails. The basket of the EWP was crushed on impact, trapping the worker’s legs. Part of the rail of the EWP basket had become hooked on the asphalt bin, leaving it suspended.

The incident resulted in significant injuries to the worker’s lower body, including fractures to his pelvis and both legs, as well as nerve damage. He required hospitalisation and multiple surgeries.

The defendant was charged with a Category 2 offence on the basis it failed to implement reasonably practicable controls to manage the risk, namely by failing to implement a work method that required the new plant to be isolated while work was performed in the vicinity of the rail. Workers should have been trained and instructed in relation to that work method and work near the rail should have been prohibited until the plant was isolated. It was not alleged that any representative of the defendant company had directed that the bin be moved at the time of the incident.

In sentencing the defendant, Magistrate Benson had regard to the defendant’s early guilty plea, cooperation with the investigation and prosecution, and genuine remorse shown. Her Honour considered the financial documents placed before the Court which identified the company was in a strained financial position.

Magistrate Benson had regard to the serious injuries suffered by the injured worker, while identifying that the seriousness of the offending was not based solely upon the seriousness of the injury and that this factor was not to override other considerations.

In determining not to record a conviction, her Honour had regard to the defendant’s cooperation with authorities, demonstrated remorse, and steps taken following the incident to change its practices.

The defendant was fined $65,000.

OWHSP contact: enquiries@owhsp.qld.gov.au