Scott Burnett Wallace

Incident description:

On 17 December 2008 a 17 year old apprentice butcher sustained burns to his head, neck and arms when opening the smokehouse door.

The court acknowledged the worker was engaged in preparing and smoking meat in a smokehouse connected to the retail butcher's shop run by the defendant. The injured worker opened the door of the smoke house to monitor the smoking process when there was a spontaneous ignition of flammable material. The explosion caused burns to the arms, head and neck of the worker.

The court found the defendant held obligations under s.28 (1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 being a person on whom an obligation was imposed that workers were not exposed to risks to their health and safety arising out of the conduct of his business or undertaking.

The investigation findings presented to the court alleged the defendant did not ensure the injured worker followed a safe way of performing the task of opening the smoke house door.

The investigation findings presented to the court revealed:

• The worker was not at the time following a work procedure for the task which included venting of the smoke house and turning on an exhaust fan. Failure to follow the procedure was a likely cause of the explosion.
• The worker had been trained and instructed in the procedure for the operation of the smoke house. This training occurred by way of demonstration.
• There was no written procedure for the operation of the smoke house.
• The worker and the defendant were not aware that the failure to follow the procedure for the use of the smoke house could cause an explosion.

Court result:

The defendant pleaded guilty in the Bundaberg Industrial Magistrates Court on 8 April 2010 to breaching s.24(1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, having failed to meet its workplace health and safety obligations and was sentenced.

Industrial Magistrate Ms Jennifer Batts ordered the defendant be placed under a twelve month good behavior bond with a recognisance in the sum of $10 000 as well as investigation costs and costs of court totaling $815.40.

In reaching a decision the Industrial Magistrate acknowledged the defendant failed to ensure the procedure for the operation of the smoke house was followed by the injured worker.

In deciding the penalty imposed Industrial Magistrate Batts took into account the defendant had not been prosecuted previously for any other workplace health and safety breaches, co-operated with the investigation and entered an early plea of guilty when ordering no conviction be recorded.

Considerations for prevention:

When working in the meat processing industry where there is exposure to risks from gas combustion, 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 gas combustion, obligation holders should consider the state of repair of the gas installation and ensure that all gas regulatory requirements are met. Further, engineering controls should be the preferred means of controlling the risk of explosion in a gas installation.

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

• health and safety information for retail and wholesale 
• health and safety tips for meat processing 
• meat retail 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.