Details of successful prosecution against E218233 - Company 1

Incident description

The defendant company held duties under s.215 (2) of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 being a grower and harvester of bananas. This included the packaging and marketing of the fruit. A component of that included management or control of powered mobile plant used by workers.

On 4 September 2015, a seasonal 'backpacker worker' from the Netherlands may have driven a tractor without due care and attention. It veered off a farm road and into a drainage ditch. He was thrown from it and sustained minor injuries. The tractor was fitted with a roll-over protective structure (ROPS) but no seatbelt.

Court result

On 17 August 2017, the defendant pleaded guilty in the Tully Magistrates Court to breaching s.215(2) of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011, having failed to meet its work health and safety duties and was sentenced.

The Magistrate fined it $1,000 and ordered professional and court costs totaling $1089.40. No conviction was recorded.

The complainant appealed and was successful on the ground that the sentence was inadequate.

The appeal decision can be accessed via the following link:

http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/qld/QDC/2018/20.html

Considerations for prevention

(commentary under this heading is not part of the court's decision)

When working in the agriculture industry where there is exposure to risks from injury from being thrown from plant without restraints fitted, duty holders should apply a risk management approach to ensure the selection of suitable control measures.

Risk management involves identifying the hazards, evaluating the consequences and likelihood of harm that may result from the hazard, deciding and implementing control measures to prevent or minimise the level of the risk from the hazard and monitoring the effectiveness of the control measures to ensure they remain working correctly.

When deciding and implementing control measures associated with the risk of injury, obligation holders should consider:

• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011
• Safe Design and operation of tractors Code of Practice 2005 (PDF, 0.5 MB)
• Rural plant Code of Practice 2004 (PDF, 0.63 MB)
• How to manage work health and safety risks code of practice 2021 (PDF, 0.65 MB)

Details