06:39 am, Saturday 3 September, 2011

Emergency services were called to the Patrick container terminal at Port Botany yesterday morning.

Paramedics say one man was discovered dead at the scene and another person was taken to St George Hospital with serious abdominal injuries.

The incident is believed to have involved a forklift, paramedics said, but no more information was immediately available.

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05:46 pm, Thursday 30 June, 2011

Two Sydney based manufacturing companies and a manager have been fined a total of $193,000 after three workers were seriously injured in 2007.

The two companies, which manufacture cardboard boxes, operated out of the same facility in Ingleburn.

They were charged with breaching the Occupational Health & Safety Act 2000 resulting from an incident where a one-tonne pallet toppled onto three workers.

On 21 December 2007, a pallet of cardboard boxing tipped onto an employee who was operating a forklift on site.

The forklift driver started to clean up the fallen sheeting with the assistance of two other employees, when further pallets weighing more than a tonne fell onto the three men.

One of the workers suffered a fractured spine, a dislocated and fractured right elbow, cuts to his head requiring stitches and general cuts and abrasions. He was unfit for work for two months as a result his injuries.

The other two workers sustained soft tissue injuries, lower back muscle strain, and general cuts and abrasions.

A WorkCover investigation found that the safety conditions at the dual-facility were unsafe and that an incident of this type was predictable and preventable.

The investigation found the companies had:

• Failed to have safe work practices in place for employees moving and/or storing cardboard boxes
• Failed to carry out a risk assessment
• Failed to provide instruction, training and information to employees
• Failed to provide adequate supervision
• Failed to inform employees of the risks of carrying out moving tasks incorrectly
• Failed to have pedestrian exclusion zones and/or physical barriers around stored stacks of cardboard boxes so as to ensure those boxes could not fall on employees.

The court fined the two companies $130,000 and $60,000 respectively. The Operations Manager was also fined $3200. All three were ordered to pay WorkCover’s legal costs.

“This incident highlights the need for safe stacking and storage systems, particularly where heavy materials are stored at height,”  said John Watson, WorkCover NSW’s General Manager of Work Health and Safety Division.

“Staff should always be appropriately inducted and trained in the safe work practices.

“Forklifts can be dangerous if not operated by properly trained people and proper controls should always be in place to isolate personnel from areas where forklifts are in operation,” Watson said.

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12:48 pm, Friday 13 May, 2011

A Perth employer and a labour hire company have been fined a total of $120,000 after a man lost his leg while operating a forklift in 2008.

The man, from the United Kingdom, was on a working holiday and was one of two men employed by a labour hire company and contracted to a bed store store in Kewdale.

After placing a pallet on a top shelf within a warehouse, he did not lower the forks and mast of the forklift before driving towards an open roller door.

The mast struck the roller door and began to tip over.

The man attempted to jump from the falling forklift but his right leg became trapped.

A second forklift had to be used to lift the fallen forklift from the man’s leg but the limb was so severely injured it had to be amputated below the knee.

WorkSafe said the man had no experience or qualification to use the machinery and had been given only a short lesson by a supervisor.

Both companies pleaded guilty last week to failing to ensure the provision of a safe workplace under a labour hire arrangement.

The employer was fined $80,000 and the labour hire company was fined $40,000.

An average 180 West Australian workers were injured in incidents involving forklifts each year and five WA workers had died in forklift-related incidents since 2004.

Acting WorkSafe WA Commissioner Lex McCulloch said the case should serve as a reminder that both labour hire companies and host employers were responsible for ensuring a safe workplace.

“In this case, neither the labour hire company nor the host employer fulfilled their obligation to ensure as far as was reasonably practicable that the host workplace was safe for the workers sent to it,” Mr McCulloch said.

“Although a [labour hire company] manager visited the workplace on a weekly basis, almost no effort was made to ensure workers were performing only the duties in their job descriptions, to communicate about changes of duties or to undertake hazard and risk assessments.

“It is apparent that the worker was not given sufficient training and instruction on how to operate a forklift, an item of plant that requires operators to obtain a High Risk Work licence.

“High Risk Work licences have been introduced for a good reason and that is to ensure that the people undertaking that work are trained to perform it in a safe manner for everyone concerned.”

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08:09 am, Friday 5 November, 2010

A warehousing employee has been fined after putting three of his colleagues at risk, with one suffering a hand injury.

The Perth Magistrates Court fined the regional manager of the Osborne Park company $2000 after admitting his failure to take reasonable care to avoid adversely affecting the safety and health of three other employees.

The court was told that on October 2008, the manager was engaged in unloading from a truck an oversized pallet of stock with a pedestrian-operated forklift.

When the pallet was raised, the forklift’s rear wheel tipped forward, indicating it was overloaded.

The manager told three workers to stand on top of the forklift’s counterweight. One balanced himself onto the support bar of forklift’s mast with his left hand.

When the manager lowered the pallet, the mast also descended. This caused the worker’s hand who was holding the mast to be crushed.

According to WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne, the incident serves as a reminder that forklifts.

“In this case, it was obvious that the load being moved exceeded the capacity of the forklift, and a safe alternative method should have been sought,” Ms Lyhne said.

“Most people would think instructing three people to stand on the counterweight to balance up the weight is not a smart thing to do. All three workers were put at risk of injury, and one did indeed sustain a serious hand injury.

“This case also illustrates the fact that it is not only employers who have a duty of care – workers also have a responsibility to look after their own safety and health and to ensure they do not adversely affect the safety and health of others in the workplace.”

Ms Lyhne said the regional manager should have known better than to place workers in a dangerous scenario and overloading a forklift.

“Comprehensive guidance material is available for working safely with forklifts, and I urge anyone with a business that includes forklifts to ensure that this Guidance Note is made available in their workplaces.”

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04:42 pm, Thursday 28 October, 2010

New figures show that 743 injuries were reported in Brimbank in the last financial year.

WorkSafe Victoria mentions transport as the five industries with the most compensation claims. Among age groups, workers aged 45-49 years old had recorded the highest number of incidents.

Figures show musculoskeletal disorders, open wounds, stress fractures, and contusion or crushing are the most common injuries.

WorkSafe deputy CEO Ian Forsyth said 3695 compensation claims were made over the last five years, costing Brimbank businesses over $78million in claims.

WorkSafe Week, which is currently ongoing, encourages companies to keep workplaces safe.

Robert Buick, a general manager of a local business, said he is attending the events slated for WorkSafe Week with the hopes of learning more about manual handling, and slips and trips.

“We want to bring back some tips on new areas on manual handling and avoiding hazards in the workplace,” he said.

His company, which has forklifts at its worksite, has not had any serious workplace injuries. However, Mr Buick recognises accidents can potentially happen.

“Safety is a big deal for us; we take it very seriously.”

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08:45 am, Wednesday 20 October, 2010

The Brisbane Industrial Magistrates Court has fined a unloading of a truck trailer.

The defendant pleaded guilty to breaching s.24(1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995. It was fined $34 000 and ordered to pay investigation and court costs of $1566.50.

On 11 March 2009, the 49-year-old manager was assisting the 64-year-old truck driver with the unloading of a 250-kg hydraulic ram when it shifted and moved.

As a result of the ram’s movement, the truck driver’s head became pinned against the mast of a forklift. The manager, who was able to jump out of the way, sustained wrist injuries in the process.

The court was told that defendant failed to implement measures that were sufficient to prevent such an incident. It also heard that the driver was exposed to risks of falling objects, and that the method for unloading was performed in a way that placed employees and other persons at risk.

According to the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, an effective risk management should have been applied to ensure suitable control measures were enforced.

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08:40 am, Tuesday 19 October, 2010

Safety issues over plant and equipment remain a major concern for the agricultural industry, WorkSafe Victoria reveals.

WorkSafe inspectors have issued over 200 safety improvement notices to farm businesses from July to September as part of a year-long statewide farm safety campaign.

Now in its third month, the campaign focuses on the most common causes of farm injuries and fatalities.

According to WorkSafe’s Executive Director (Health and Safety) Ian Forsyth, over half of the safety notices issued were in connection with plant and equipment safety.

“One of our biggest concerns is the lack of guarding on power take-off (PTO) shafts which can turn at thousands of revolutions a minute,” said Mr Forsyth.

“A PTO guard is basically a life-saving device which protects you from getting caught up in the rotating parts which connect a auger or a slasher.

“If [you're] not using a PTO guard, you’re putting yourself and others at risk of being pulled into the rotating shaft by hair or clothing.

“Most farmers would have a good understanding of what a fast-rotating shaft looks like. You don’t need a lot of imagination to understand what happens when something goes wrong,” he said.

Mr Forsyth is expecting farmers to become busier in the coming months as the state is expecting a bumper crop.

“Things may have been a bit quieter for farmers over winter – now that the days are longer and farmers are gearing up for harvesting, the pressure is really on.

“Now is the time to get safety right. If you’ve been farming for decades, it’s time to start thinking the job through rather than just relying on your skills and experience.”

Aside from inadequate PTO guard, the safety inspections had uncovered a number of safety issues involving plant and equipment, including quad bikes (helmets), silos, traffic management systems, and rollover protection on tractors.

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08:04 am, Saturday 25 September, 2010

A WorkSafe inspector of 11 years shares his experiences on the job, and quips that his role is like “hamburger with the lot”.

Dan Nolan, a Senior Inspector in the manufacturing, logistics and agriculture industry, says inspectors see everything in the workplaces they visit.

“I deal with people from all walks of life and across the entire social strata, including people from non-English speaking backgrounds and with different religious and cultural beliefs,” Mr Nolan says.

He relates that visiting sites where workers have suffered serious and fatal injuries is one negative aspect of his job.

“This always underpins the major aspect of my role – to improve health and safety in the workplace.”

The senior inspector says manufacturing, logistics and agriculture businesses usually generate notices on forklifts.

He advises employers to ensure their workplace is in top shape by reading up on WorkSafe publications; talking to industry groups, workers, union safety officers and safety representatives; and applying for WorkSafe’s free consultancy.

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07:20 am, Wednesday 22 September, 2010

A supermarket operator is giving its assurance to WorkSafe to implement safety upgrades following a forklift accident in its facility.

The safety commitment comes after a workplace incident in its Wodonga distribution centre in June 2008.

An unsupervised and unlicensed worker attempted to operate a reach truck – an equipment similar to a forklift – to return a pallet to its place in an eight metre high rack.

While doing so, the mast of the specialised forklift hooked on to the pallet above the empty position. This caused the load of the pallet to fall.

The man got out of the incident unscathed, and was only soaked in oil when the glass bottles of olive oil broke open on the truck’s roof of the truck.

The company and its subsidiary (which employed the worker in the distribution centre) entered into a legal undertaking with WorkSafe, requiring them implement several safety improvements on forklifts and reach trucks.

The agreement has been agreed upon in lieu of prosecution, and is allowed under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. It can be enforced through courts if the parties fail to meet the conditions set forth.

According to WorkSafe Manufacturing and Logistics Director Ross Pilkington, the company and its subsidiary have an obligation to ensure appropriate safety training and supervision for workers.

“The worker operating the reach truck had only completed a day of basic training. He was shown how to use a truck by another storeperson – but after a few hours’ supervision, he was left to operate it on his own,” Mr Pilkington said.

“Clearly he shouldn’t have been operating a reach truck – it wasn’t safe for him or his fellow workers, and it was pure luck that no-one was injured.”

Under the agreement, the company and the subsidiary must undertake the following activities:

* An independent review of the OHS systems at the distribution centre and an implementation plan for corrective actions;
* An audit of physical hazards and a plan for corrective actions;
* A forklift licensing system review;
* Publication of a Forklift Licensing Guidance Note to be be presented to the Wodonga Chamber of Commerce;
* Publication of an article regarding the incident in their internal newsletter and an external industry publication;
* Presentation of a free safety seminar at WorkSafe Week or equivalent;
* Installation of mast cameras on to all forklifts at all their distribution centres.

They will also be donating a total of $90,000 to The Royal Children’s Hospital; the Wodonga Health Services Emergency Department; and the Institute for Safety, Compensation, and Recovery Research.

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09:24 am, Tuesday 21 September, 2010

WorkSafe WA is gearing up for the changes in licensing requirements for high-risk workers by visiting construction sites starting October 1.

A new WorkSafe campaign will target people employed in crane operations.

Inspectors will visit metropolitan and regional WA construction sites to ensure stake holders know about the new licensing requirements for high risk construction jobs.

The regulatory changes were introduced in 2007 and will soon be taking full effect for people performing high-risk work.

According to WorkSafe’s Chris Kirwin, workers whose Certificate of Competency was issued before 2002 will no longer be permitted to work without a High-Risk Work licence.

He said a total phase out of Certificates of Competency will take effect on 30 June 2012, and the new licence will be required for all high-risk workers.

“appropriate training,” Mr Kirwin said.

“Under the licensing system we can be confident that high-risk workers will have achieved a minimum standard of competency and safety awareness.

“And because the licences are recognised throughout Australia, workers will be able to transfer between states more easily.”

Mr Kirwin said the campaign serves mainly as an information drive, but inspector will issue improvement notices if safety breaches are found.

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