Page 124 - Alex Ruscuklic - Complete Works

FORKLIFT HITCHHIKE HIJINX – Company & Worker Prosecuted
A worker hitching a ride on a forklift and another playing around with a fire hose has resulted in a company and one young worker being prosecuted by WorkSafe.
In April last year, a 17-year-old fellow worker’s leg was run over and broken (requiring two permanent pins to be inserted) after he fell (or jumped) from a forklift as its driver swerved to avoid the prankster’s jet of spray.
A Benalla sawmilling company pleaded guilty to two health and safety charges relating to its failure to provide and maintain a safe workplace (Sections 21(1) & (2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004) and failing to report the incident to WorkSafe (Section 38(1) & (3) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004).
Benalla Magistrate Paul Smith ordered a comprehensive package of requirements on the company under new ‘alternate penalty’ provisions now allowed under Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act.
The Court undertakings were:
To issue a media release and to take part in a briefing, urging other businesses to improve their
safety standards;
To provide $40,000 to the Goulburn-Ovens Institute of TAFE (Benalla) for safety equipment and OHS training programs;
To develop and implement a comprehensive induction program for the company’s own use – covering plant and forklift safety, employee safety requirements, the role of supervisors, management of contractors and labour hire employees;
The company’s director to complete a five-day OHS course within 12 months;
All forklift operators to undertake refresher training; and
The 18-year-old worker with the fire hose (prosecuted, convicted, and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond) to do an appropriate Certificate 1 TAFE course within 12 months
The Director of WorkSafe’s Manufacturing, Logistics and Agriculture Division, Ross Pilkington, said the penalties should send a clear message to employers and workers to ensure safety standards were maintained.
“Health and safety failings can result in prosecution and convictions which can have serious short and long- term effects, as well as the potential for injury and death.
“Young and inexperienced workers are particularly vulnerable,” he says, “and often have a sense that ‘it can’t happen to me’, but the reality is that it can, and does.
“Ensuring they’re properly trained and supervised, and that those superior to them are maintaining safety standards, will ensure they get to go home at the end of the day.”
FORKLIFT FUN – Comes at a Cost!
Dangerous forklift driving has cost a young worker his job and his forklift licence, and earned him 50 hours of community work and an order to do a 5-day health and safety course.
WorkSafe prosecuted a 20-year-old Seymour man employed by a pipeline company in Kilmore, after he posted a video of himself doing stunts on a forklift on YouTube.
The video, which has now been removed, showed him deliberately crashing into concrete pipes, doing burnouts and overloading the machine so he could do wheelies. He was not wearing a seatbelt and this put him at risk of serious injury or death.
SAFETY FIRST . . . ALWAYS
SAFETY FIRST . . . AL
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