Employer appeal reduces near-maximum fines for explosion deaths; and Essential safety news from SWA, Queensland, Victoria and NSW.
Employer appeal reduces near-maximum fines for explosion deaths
A South Australian employer and a director who were handed near-maximum safety fines after the Gladstone factory explosion - which killed three workers - have had their penalties reduced, despite their "serial" failings.
In May 2006, five Quin Investments Pty Ltd employees were using a poorly maintained ribbon blender to mix dry ingredients for the manufacture of explosives when the explosion occurred, killing three of the men and injuring the other two.
The employer and its director, Nikolai Kuzub, pleaded not guilty to breaching the State OHSW Act, but in September 2010 proceedings, Industrial Magistrate Michael Ardlie found the operation of the Gladstone-based factory was a "disaster waiting to happen", and fined the defendants $95,000 each, or 95 per cent of the then maximum penalty.
In the Industrial Relations Court appeal proceedings at hand, Judges Bill Jennings, Brian Gilchrist and Peter Hannon found the employer and director's breaches were serious and called for "substantial" penalties.
"They involved a serial failure to provide and maintain plant in a safe condition," they said.
"There were no design details, drawings or manufacturers' instructions for critical items of plant. There were no proper maintenance records. There was no system of preventative maintenance. [They] allowed extremely dangerous substances to be stored in proximity to each other, and in particular, allowed TNT production to occur at the same time as a pre-mix explosive was being prepared."
However, Judges Jennings, Gilchrist and Hannon found that in sentencing the employer and director, Industrial Magistrate Ardlie had wrongly concluded that the incident was caused by the poor condition of the ribbon blender.
"Although the findings as to the lack of maintenance and the defective state of the ribbon blender should stand, the [prosecutor] had not established beyond reasonable doubt that this state of affairs caused the explosion," they said.
"Thus the [employer and director] should not have been sentenced on that basis."
Judges Jennings, Gilchrist and Hannon reduced the penalties imposed on the employer and director to $75,000 and $60,000 respectively.
Quin Investments Pty Ltd and Anor v Markos [2012] SAIRC 11 (20 March)
Essential safety news from SWA, Queensland, Victoria and NSW
Safe Work Australia has published another guide - Developing a Safety Case Outline - to help the operators of major hazard facilities comply with the new Work Health and Safety Regulations. SWA released eight other guides for the sector earlier this month (see bottom of related article).
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has issued an incident alert after a labour-hire forklift operator was fatally crushed by an attachment on a toppling excavator.
WorkSafe Victoria has issued an alert on the safe storage of gas cylinders in vehicles, after two workers were killed in explosions.
The Victorian regulator has also published an incident alert on fall protection, following "an alarming number" of recent incidents in which workers fell from heights and sustained life-threatening injuries or died.
Further, WorkSafe has published the charter for the Earth Resources Tripartite Safety Forum, which was established as an avenue to consult with stakeholders on OHS issues.
NSW Mine Safety has announced that it will host a series of fatigue-management forums in a number of regional areas from 27 March to 24 May.
It has also released a safety bulletin after a report found there were about 270 incidents where the explosion-protection characteristics of diesel engine systems failed in 2011.
And the NSW Independent Transport Safety Regulator has published its 2010/11 Rail Industry Safety Report, which found that more than 100 significant failures occurred in the systems designed to protect track workers. It also found that one passenger was killed after falling from a platform and being struck by a train, and 539 passengers were injured, mostly from slips, trips and falls.
