Onkar Group Pty Ltd, trading as Bakeology, and sole director Maninder Singh Nagi have been convicted and fined a total of $1.43 million in the Wangaratta County Court today following the 2022 fatigue-related death of delivery driver Rohallah Khashee.
The company and the director pleaded guilty to five charges under the OHS Act. The company was convicted and fined $1.1 million for recklessly placing a person at a workplace in danger of serious injury, and an aggregate $250,000 for failing to provide a workplace that was safe and without risks to health and failing to ensure people other than employees weren't exposed to risks to their health or safety.
Mr Nagi was convicted and fined an aggregate $80,000 for being an officer of a company that failed to provide a workplace that was safe and without risks to health and failed to ensure people other than employees weren't exposed to risks to their health or safety, contraventions that were solely attributable to his failure to take reasonable care.
An adverse publicity order was also issued by the court requiring them to publicise the offence, its consequences and the penalty imposed in an industry publication.
27-year-old Mr Khashee was 12 hours into an overnight shift delivering baked goods to various locations in Victoria's north when his van drifted into the path of an oncoming truck at Kialla West, south of Shepparton. Mr Khashee died as a result of the collision, while the truck driver was unharmed.
During the WorkSafe investigation it was found that prior to the incident, the driver had completed the same 796 kilometre delivery run for seventeen consecutive nights, most including shifts exceeding 12 hours, without adequate breaks of time to rest and recover between shifts.
It was reasonably practicable for Onkar Group and Mr Nagi to reduce the risk of serious injury or death posed by slower reaction times, lapses in attention, or falling asleep while driving by providing or maintaining a system of work that ensured the driver did not work excessive hours without adequate stationary rest time out of a vehicle.
The company and Mr Nagi also failed to provide Mr Khashee with information about the causes, signs, symptoms, and identification of fatigue, as well as instruction and training in the prevention of fatigue, including the need for breaks with continuous rest periods.
To reduce the risk of fatigue employers should:
- Set realistic workloads and eliminate or reduce the need to work extended hours or overtime.
- Schedule an adequate number of workers and other resources to do the job to avoid placing excessive demands on staff.
- Appropriately schedule leave and other staff commitments such as training and ensure there is a process for managing unplanned absences.
- Develop policies and procedures to identify, prevent, and manage fatigue and ensure they are implemented and promoted.
- The policy should include maximum daily work hours, maximum average weekly hours, and consider time of day and work-related travel.
- Control overtime, shift-swapping, and on-call duties.
- Provide adequate breaks between shifts to allow employees enough recovery time (including travel, family time, leisure and socialising and exercise time).
- Enable staff to speak up if they are feeling fatigued and unable to work without risk.
Employers of drivers should ensure that employees are not assigned to excessive driving rosters such as –
- more than ten hours in any 11 hour period without rest breaks of at least 15 continuous minutes;
- more than 12 hours in any 24 hour period without a minimum break of seven continuous hours stationary rest time out of a vehicle;
- more than 72 hours in any seven day period without a minimum break of 24 continuous hours stationary rest time out of a vehicle; and
- more than 144 hours in any 14 day period without a minimum rest break of two consecutive nights between 10pm and 8am.
Employers can find more information about managing work-related fatigue at WorkSafe’s Work related fatigue guide for employers.
OHS Reps offers HSRs and other employees information and guidance about work-related fatigue on our Fatigue, Impairment & Shift-work - OHS Reps page, including information about shift work, work-life balance, and driving.
Read more: Company and director fined $1.43 million after fatigued driver's fatal crash | WorkSafe Victoria