10:13 am, Thursday 11 March, 2010

The Victorian Magistrates’ Court has convicted and fined a company on March 1 over a 2007 workplace incident which caused serious injuries to a worker.

Ace Tower Hire Pty. Ltd. (trading as Ace Energy Services) pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain safe plant and systems of work.

At the time of the incident, a new two storey office was being constructed inside the energy services company’s Kilysth warehouse.

A make shift platform, consisting of wooding planks resting across the tynes of a side loader forklift, was used for the construction work.

On 19 July 2007, one of the employees asked a workmate to help him affix a sheet of blue board while on the platform.

The employee directing the construction work then ordered the forklift operator to raise the tynes while he and his workmate were standing on the make shift platform.

As the driver raised the tynes to a height of about 4 metres, the make shift platform moved and the other worker lost his balance, falling at height.

The employee suffered a fractured skull, ribs, spine and shoulder due to the fall.

He also lacerated his spleen and has suffered memory problems because of the head injuries.

Magistrate Tony Parsons heard that side loader forklift should not have been used to lift anyone without the fitment of an approved safety work platform secured to the forklift.

The court fined Ace Energy Services $80,000.

Report by Julia Alder - Do you have an OHS News Story - Let us know