Bucyrus Australia Underground Pty Ltd

Incident description:

On 19 August 2008 a 17 year old male labour hire worker sustained injuries to his right hip and stomach.

The court acknowledged the worker was involved in assembling large pan sets used in the mining industry. He was approximately halfway through inserting pins when he hoisted himself onto one of the side spill plates of a pan. While in this position, between two pans, one pan moved and pinned him against the other pan.

The court found the defendant held obligations under s.28(1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 being a person in control of a workplace.

The defendant had global systems in place (site rules, inductions, risk assessments, hazard identification and isolation, checklist training, forklift training and supervision) for workers but had not conducted a risk assessment or implemented a safe work procedure (SWP) on the storage and despatch processes (transport and placement) for pan sets. Instead, the defendant relied on generic techniques, and the fact that similar incidents had not occurred.

The investigation findings presented to the court revealed:

• The hazards requiring management were working on or near unsecured loads namely stored pan assemblies and the system of work used for unsecured loads.
• There was no clear identification by the defendant of the hazards presented when stacking pans.
• The defendant failed to manage the risks that may arise from the hazards in accordance with the risk management process set out in s.27A of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995.
• Prior to corporate restructure, the defendant as 'DBT Australia Pty Ltd' was prosecuted in relation to a fatality on 10 December 2004.

Court result:

The defendant pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Industrial Magistrates Court on 18 March 2010 to breaching s.24(1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, having failed to meet its workplace health and safety obligations.

Industrial Magistrate Bronwyn Springer fined the defendant $50 000 and ordered the defendant to pay the investigation costs, professional fees and filing fees totaling $4056.20.

In reaching a decision the Industrial Magistrate acknowledged the defendant failed to specifically identify the hazard associated with assembling pan sets as used in the mining industry.

In deciding penalty, Ms Springer took into account the defendant had been prosecuted previously for a serious workplace health and safety incident involving a fatality, but that was prior to the current corporate restructure. Her Honour acknowledged defendant's counsel's submission that consideration ought to be given to the significant structural changes to the company. The court accepted the timely plea, cooperation with the investigation, appropriate post-incident corrective measures, adequate assistance to the injured worker when ordering no conviction be recorded.

Considerations for prevention:

When working in the manufacturing and mining industry where there is exposure to risks from movement of stored objects, obligation holders should apply a risk management approach to ensure the selection of suitable control measures.

Risk management involves evaluating the consequences and likelihood of harm that may result from the hazard, deciding on and implementing control measures to prevent or minimise the level of the risk from the hazard and monitoring the effectiveness of the control measures to ensure they remain working correctly.

When deciding on and implementing control measures associated with the risk of the movement of stored objects, obligation holders should consider engineering controls to prevent injury to workers in preference to other control measures.

Visit the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland website for information on:

• health and safety information for manufacturing 
• manufacturing industry 
• training staff and using control measures to manage risks associated with workplace hazards
• Plant Code of Practice 2005
• Risk Management Code of Practice 2007
• Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995.