An employee of Delta Recycling Pty Ltd who was directly supervising a labour hire worker has been prosecuted for their actions that contributed to the labour hire worker sustaining a serious broken arm and a snapped tendon in his thumb.
The employee, who was also an HSR, had been employed by Delta Recycling for 20 years and is an experienced and licenced excavator operator. Over the course of his employment with Delta Recycling the employee had several times signed and acknowledged the company's Safe Operating Procedures (SOP) identifying the risk of falling objects when lifting loads using an excavator.
The SOPs required excavator operators lifting loads to keep all persons clear of the loads. On the day of the incident in November 2022 the employee completed a pre-start checklist indicating that exclusion zones were in place and communicated to other relevant workers.
The employee was loading steel into a truck using an excavator claw attachment. During the task the labour hire worker was near the truck and the employee told the labour hire worker that he should not be there but failed to ensure that this advice was followed before continuing his work.
The employee raised the excavator claw attachment suspending the load over the truck container and the labour hire worker. Shortly afterwards the employee was loading a large piece of steel into the truck when it struck the labour hire worker's right arm.
In sentencing the employee, the Court found that the employee did not see the labour hire worker, however he failed by not maintaining an awareness of where the labour hire worker was located.
The employee was placed on an undertaking to be of good behaviour for 12 months and ordered to pay a $2,500 donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation charity.
Read more: Prosecution Result Summaries and Enforceable Undertakings | WorkSafe Victoria