Metal recycler fined $85k for worker’s fall

A METAL recycling company with facilities in Tasmania’s north and south has been slugged $85,000 and had convictions recorded after it pleaded guilty to unsafe practices leading to a worker’s 7m fall.

Melbourne-headquartered Recycal Pty Ltd, which operates from Rocherlea and Derwent Park, previously pleaded guilty in Launceston Magistrates Court to breaching a workplace health and safety duty and failing to preserve the scene of an incident. The incident occurred at Recycal’s Rocherlea facility on George Town Rd on June 30, 2019, the court previously heard.

Site supervisor Brett Rowe, the son of managing director Doug Rowe, and the fall victim were the only two men on-site on the morning of the incident, the court was told.

The victim had used a Genie boom lift to climb on top of an upended shipping container, where he was to latch it shut after it was filled with scrap metal, but he instead fell. He suffered catastrophic injuries and was in a coma for twoand-a-half weeks. The man still works at the company.

The court previously heard the Genie boom lift required a harness to be worn, its use was to be recorded in a log, and users were not to lean out of the bucket. None of this occurred.

On Monday, Launceston Magistrate Sharon Cure fined the company a global sentence of $85,000, with convictions recorded. She said Recycal was generally a good corporate citizen that made a positive contribution to the community. The company had made “considerable changes to its system of work beyond just addressing specific risk”, she said.