A 70-year-old worker, employed by labour-hire firm AH Vision Pty Ltd and provided to work at Cutri Fruit Pty Ltd.’s orchard in Woorinen South, Victoria, sustained fatal head injuries when he fell from a moving trailer while working just his second shift at the orchard.
The $415,000 fine imposed on AH Vision reinforces the point that labour providers have a duty to ensure the health and safety of their employees when they place them onsite. As reported in SafetyNet #743, Cutri Fruit was fined $750,000 last December for failing to ensure persons other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks a cumulative total in fines of over $1.1million.
AH Vision was found guilty of failing to provide their worker with the information, instruction and training needed to enable him to perform his work in a safe way, and for failing to comply with a notice to produce information and documents to WorkSafe’s investigation into the death.
WorkSafe health and safety executive director Sam Jenkin responded to the AH Vision sentencing by advising “Labour hire companies can't just send workers off to a worksite and hope for the best, leaving them to work in unfamiliar environments without providing appropriate safety training and information".
Employees in insecure work often feel unable to raise issues of safety for fear of losing work. Despite Victoria not yet having achieved regulations on psychosocial hazards and WorkSafe not recognising insecure work as a risk factor, both the Commonwealth and the WA Codes of Practice recognise that employment types such as contract, seasonal, casual, freelance and gig work are increasing risk factors.
For information and resource to help manage psychosocial hazards in your workplace visit our OHSReps Psychosocial Hazards page.
Read more: Labour hire company AH Vision fined fruit picker death | ABC News