$2m bill for lax safety
14 Geelong businesses hit by WorkSafe
FOURTEEN Geelong businesses have had to hand over almost $2 million in fines and penalties to WorkSafe in the past year.
More than $1.6 million of those payouts and commitments relate to six prosecutions in the past two months.
The largest penalty was in September when former chicken farm contractor CK Crouch P/L was fined more than $1.1 million in Geelong Magistrates’ Court following the 2015 death of its employee, Troy Baker, who was hit by a forklift.
Given the firm is in liquidation, it is unlikely that fine will be paid.
Grovedale recycling business Retmar P/L was fined $175,000 plus costs of $3580 in the magistrates’ court last month after the death of one of its workers.
WorkSafe said a yard hand was run over by a bobcat at the business on May 6 last year, and found the company’s traf- fic management plan at that time “insufficient”.
While staff were told to stay 5m from the bobcat, the workplace safety watchdog said it was often driven close to employees, with no engineering controls in place, and there was a risk that the bobcat would collide with pedestrians.
Magistrate John Lesser fined the firm after it pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment and was told that the company had already improved its traffic management system.
One of the region’s largest employers, the City of Greater Geelong, was also prosecuted by WorkSafe. Last week it agreed to spend more than $300,000 on a raft of safety measures as part of an enforceable undertaking.
It signed up to the measures after an apprentice working for a contractor fell through the roof of the Lara Community Hall in March last year and was injured.
The City will employ two new full-time safety staff in the coming year and has agreed to new public awareness campaigns aimed at improving the culture of workplace safety in Geelong as part of that agreement.
“WorkSafe will only accept an enforceable undertaking as an alternative to prosecution if it believes that the undertakings given by the offender offer significant benefits for the workplace, industry and the community,” a WorkSafe spokesman said.
“WorkSafe was satisfied that the enforceable undertakings proposed by the council will deliver tangible health and safety benefits.”
Other employers fined in Geelong Magistrates’ Court last month after being prosecuted by WorkSafe include Project Construction Group P/L ($25,000 fine plus $5221 costs) and self-employed builder Adrian Padoin — trading as Padcon Constructions — ($10,000 fine, $2500 costs).