Safety Sytem Enforcement

Implementing Safety Systems

 

 

“A key component of any safety system is to ensure that procedures are being followed at all times”

 

 

It has been revealed in the NSW Industrial Court that a company’s failure to enforce a safe system of work at a Sydney worksite led to a breakdown in safety procedures resulting in the electrocution of a worker.

In the court sequel to the January 2003 fatality at Marrickville telephone exchange, Stowe Australia Pty Ltd was fined $190,000 after being found guilty of a breach of section 8(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000.

A WorkCover NSW investigation uncovered that although the company had a well- established and documented safety system in place, supervisors failed to ensure that the necessary safe work method statements were available on site on the day of the tragedy.

In handing down the sentence, Justice Wayne Haylen said the absence of those essential documents on the day, led to the Stowe Australia team adopting their own practices for carrying out the work at Marrickville telephone exchange.

WorkCover’s investigation found documented details of the exchange’s electrical circuitry were inaccurate and that the circuitry needed to be properly identified before work commenced.

At the Marrickville exchange one switch was powered from two distribution board sources at different levels in the building posing a risk to workers re-wiring emergency exit lighting.

WorkCover NSW CEO Jon Blackwell commented: “This tragic case underlines the crucial importance of employers to not only document critical procedures, but also to train their workers in the necessary safety procedures applicable to the work they are to undertake.

“A key component of any safety system is to ensure that procedures are being followed at all times,” said Mr Blackwell.

 

 Court Case –Victoria

"This problem was known and it wasn't fixed until a man died”

 

GLOBAL brewing giant Foster's has been fined $1.1 million over a safety breach that killed a worker.

Machine operator Cuu Huynh, 58, died from injuries he suffered as he performed maintenance on a beer bottling machine at the company's Abbotsford brewery in Melbourne in 2006.

Mr Huynh's head had become jammed between an automated door on a beer bottling machine and a railing at the brewery and he died in hospital seven days later from asphyxiation.

A worker had been injured in almost identical circumstances four years earlier, but the company had not improved safety since.

Judge Jane Compton said no fine she imposed could compensate for the family's loss.

The court heard many workers at the factory were unable to read the company's standard operating procedures because they did not speak adequate English.

Outside court, John Merritt, executive director of health and safety at WorkSafe Victoria, said the fine was the second biggest in Victorian history.

"The reason this fine is so high is that sadly the company was warned about this matter, there had been a similar incident some time before, the problem had been identified and the problem wasn't fixed," Mr Merritt said.