Work risk fines soar

Tough on safety breaches

VICTORIAN safety watchdog WorkSafe has dished out more than $9 million in fines to dodgy operators in the past financial year alone.

The government organisation’s annual report — which was tabled in State Parliament on Thursday — has revealed a massive increase of 268 per cent in fines imposed from the previous financial year.

Fines handed out by WorkSafe for the 2017-18 financial year totalled $9,467,025 compared to $3,535,000 in 2016-17.

Some of the fines, which included at least two of more than $1 million, were awarded for historic incidents dating back to 2011.

“In any year the total value of fines imposed for OHS breaches depends on the nature of the cases prosecuted,” a WorkSafe spokeswoman said.

“Last year’s high value demonstrates that there are serious consequences for duty holders who disregard safety at work.”

One of the biggest fines awarded last year was for a company contracted to work on a farm in Lethbridge where a forklift collision resulted in the death of an employee.

The contractor was fined $1,137,525 for the incident in 2017, with the magistrate overseeing the case at the time describing it as “the worst case since I’ve been on the bench”.

WorkSafe prosecuted the firm for three occupational health and safety breaches, including two counts of failing to provide or maintain safe systems of work and one of failing to inform, instruct and train its employees.

Other notable penalties included a $1.3 million dollar fine to a contractor undertaking road maintenance in Victoria, with a traffic management worker struck and killed by a sweeper vehicle that had breached an exclusion zone and reversed into the employee.

WorkSafe completed 127 prosecutions over the past financial year with a success rate of 91 per cent.