08:34 pm, Monday 26 September, 2011

SafeWork SA has convicted and fined D’Arenberg Pty Ltd,  a winemaking company based in Southern Vales, for breaching section 19(1) of the Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act 1986.

The company has pleaded guilty of failing to implement a safety system while at work, causing one of its employees to suffer due to a fall.

Investigation showed that on January of 2009, while its worker was at the roof of its storage shed in its Kangarilla facility, the roofing iron sheet gave way and caused the worker to fall four meters to the ground. The worker unfortunately suffered fractures to his skull and wrist, as well as trauma to his left eye.  He remains permanently without his left vision, as a result, and is unable to return to work following the accident.

SafeWork SA cites that D’Arenberg Pty Ltd failed to provide the following when its worker was refurbishing the roofing:

1. edge protection
2. harness or fall restraint
3. proper system of work
4. proper visual inspection before the work was to take place.

The court’s Industrial Magistrate has asked the company to pay $90,000 in fines, which was discounted when D’Arenberg Pty Ltd owned up to their fault and made the necessary safety precautions afterwards.

According to SafeWork SA, falling comprises about 20% of many injuries in the workplace, which is why stringent safety measures are required.

Workers who are tasked to perform their duties at height are always at risk, hence safety measures must always be in place to avoid any untoward incidents.

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07:57 pm, Monday 26 September, 2011

The increasing population of rodents in Victoria is causing serious safety hazards for those in the agriculture and manufacturing industries.

These rodents have been discovered as making haystacks and bale their homes and have been found digging through its foundation. Thus, the holes on the stacks are potentially undermining its stability.

WorkSafe has issued a warning to all those working near stacks or bales citing that infestation may cause this to fall. It may be a hazard to those around the area.

Workers are advised to check for mice infestation and remove the bale carefully. The upper layers would have to shift to the centre as workers try to remove this, so that safety is ensured.

Damaged stacks must be taken out using forklifts, as they can easily collapse with high winds. Farmers and those who transport these should not be climbing on to the stacks for possible engulfment when these collapse.

WorkSafe reiterates to approach this situation with caution and advise workers to have good plan for moving haystacks, while working with the right equipment.

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07:47 pm, Monday 26 September, 2011

The Industrial Magistrate handed down a joint penalty against two directors of a manufacturing over an injury of one of its workers and their failure to report this.

The court has fined Robert Venning Pty Ltd and Richard Venning Pty Ltd in Eyre Peninsula of some $56,000 plus cost,  for breaching the Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Act 1986.

The incident took place on October 2009. Investigation showed that one of its worker, a 17-year-old apprentice, was said to be operating a milling machine in its site in Kadina when the young man’s gloves apparently caught the rotating cutter. This resulted in the worker severely injuring his right hand, including its tendons, nerves, bones and muscles. He was, however, able to return to work after recovery.

SafeWork SA concluded that physical barriers to moving parts were not present in the work area and so were other warning notices or training instructions on the proper use of the machine.

It was discovered that while its employers admitted the patient in the hospital, the incident was not reported to SafeWork SA. The law requires a formal report for this and SafeWork SA only found out after an informal notice from the worker’s family.

The defendants also failed to inform SafeWork that the same person was involved in another accident at work four months ago. The defendants said they were not aware that these reports had to be made but they did acknowledge their fault, as well as promised to provide remedial action.

The Industrial Magistrate says that the defendants’ ignorance was costly for both the company and the injured worker. The Magistrate further said that had they remained proactive, incidents like this would have been prevented.

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09:21 am, Sunday 25 September, 2011

The Industrial Court of NSW has fined the Roads and Traffic Authority $175,000 over an accident that resulted in two of its workers falling four metres from a bridge in Corowa in 2008.

The men suffered chest, back and pelvic injuries when they fell from a work platform suspended from the Murray River bridge.

The RTA pleaded guilty to failing to provide a safe workplace.

The men, one of whom was a carpenter, had been preparing for a $480,000 upgrade of the bridge’s decking.

The platform they were erecting, a swing scaffold, was attached to monorail tracks on the bridge. After they had been winched into position, two monorail tracks came loose and their platform fell four metres, landing on a cyclone fence.

It was found the most likely cause of the monorail failing was the removal of the top of a 16 millimetre diameter bolt, that secured the monorail, which had been cut off during maintenance work by the RTA in 2007.

“The breach in all the circumstances of these proceedings was a serious one, as conceded by the defendant, but one that I would assess as being mid-range, a position asserted by both the prosecutor and the defendant,” Justice Frank Marks said.

He said the maximum penalty the RTA could have faced was a $825,000 fine, but he believed $175,000 was “appropriate” in the circumstances.

“Whether or not the person or persons responsible for the cutting of the bolts realised that one of them was one of the bolts holding the monorail in place is not known,” Justice Marks said in his finding.

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08:45 am, Sunday 25 September, 2011

The 24-year-old man was welding on the tracks at a rail construction project at Sandgate, in the Hunter Valley, when an excavator ran over his left arm and severed it just below the elbow.

His arm was later reattached but the injury has left him with permanent nerve damage.

WorkCover found serious safety breaches by the site’s contractors, including a number of defects on the rail-mounted excavator, which put the lives of employees at risk.

The defendants were all charged with breaches of the Occupational Health & Safety Act 2000.

WorkCover NSW’s Peter Dunphy said the incident was entirely foreseeable and should never have happened.

“The steps that should have been taken to ensure safety were not only simple, but they were well-known safety practices in the industry,” he said.

“These companies did not do this and a young man will remain seriously injured for the rest of his life.

“This incident could very easily have resulted in a fatality.”

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09:47 am, Friday 23 September, 2011

The Perth Magistrates Court last week fined a glass installation company $15,000 after a hired labourer became pinned under 30 panels of glass, each weighing 56 kilograms.

The company pleaded guilty to failing to provide a safe workplace under a labour hire arrangement.

In July 2009, the glass company was contracted to supply and install the aluminium and glass facades of an apartment complex in Adelaide Terrace, Perth, and hired outside workers to complete the job.

The glass was delivered to the site in a large wooden crate, each contained 30 glass panels which weighed about 1.65 tonnes.

While the crate was being opened, the glass panels and the wooden crate front fell on top of the worker.

He was crushed and suffered a fractured leg.

Acting WorkSafe WA Commissioner Lex McCulloch said the case highlighted the importance of having safe systems of work in place at all times.

“This is a good example of a task not being performed in a safe manner, and a worker suffering the consequences of the lack of attention to safe systems of work,” Mr McCulloch said.

“The court heard that the employer was not aware that crates were being unpacked in this way, but it really is the employer’s responsibility to identify risks such as this and to ensure that tasks are always performed safely.

“In this case, the use of a steel A-frame trolley strong enough to support the crate while holding the glass panels at a safe angle would have been an easy and safe way to unpack the wooden crates.

“The worker was fortunate not to have been more seriously injured, and the case should serve as a reminder that both host companies and labour hire companies need to ensure that host workplaces are safe for the workers sent to them.”

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09:36 am, Friday 23 September, 2011

A machinery hire company has been fined $125,000 after a worker was paralysed when a tractor he was unloading fell on him in 2008.

The 43-year-old machine operator was using a truck ramp to unload the tractor in Kiama, on the NSW South Coast, when the ramp collapsed and the vehicle fell on him.

A WorkCover investigation found safety protocols were not followed and charged the company with breaching the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

The company pleaded guilty to the charges.

“The steps that should have been taken were not only simple, but they were well-known safety practices in the industry,” WorkCover spokesman Peter Dunphy said.

“In this case these safety protocols were not followed and tragically a man is now permanently disabled.”

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09:28 am, Friday 23 September, 2011

Following another recent quad-bike death on a rural property in NSW, the Health Workplace Safety Authority has announced a strategy aimed at reducing quad bike accidents and injuries.

The popular four wheeler has been responsible for more than 141 deaths on Australian farms since 2000.

Tony Williams, from Workcover NSW, says the new approach starts with the purchase.

“Certainly, we are concentrating on point of sale, so right up front we want farmers to make the right decision, to buy the right machine,” he said.

“So we’ve got posters, we’ve got brochures, we’ve got pre-purchase check lists that are out there, for not only the farmer, but for the dealer to help make a good decision in purchasing.”

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09:14 am, Friday 23 September, 2011

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11:43 pm, Thursday 22 September, 2011

A West Australian chemical plant has been fined $90 000 after four workers were injured in an acid spill at its Australind chemical plant.

The four workers suffered acid burns and one’s leg was required to be amputated.

Another worker sustained injuries when he came to their aid.

The chemical company is the world’s second-largest producer of titanium dioxide and a leading producer of titanium chemicals.

Resources safety director dangerous goods safety Phillip Hine said that incident was due to inadequate inspection of the recently replaced sulphuric acid pipe work system.

“A problem was detected with the system that indicated acid was not flowing into the finishing tanks,” Hine said.

“Three staff went to identify the cause of the problem when a valve failed and sprayed them with concentrated sulphuric acid.”

“The investigation by the department found that the valve that failed was from the old pipe work system and was designed to carry 40 percent sulphuric acid,” Hine said.

“The valve was exposed to 98 percent sulphuric acid for an extended period of time. This resulted in the valve diaphragm dissolving and the failure of the valve.”

A company inspection of the valve failed to notice that it had not been replaced.

Hines stated that the accident could have been avoided if proper safety measures were in place.

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