WorkSafe has charged a major retail chain and a warehouse robotics supplier following the death of a worker at a Ravenhall distribution centre in September 2024.
The 27-year-old man was fatally crushed between moving parts of an energised and operating automated robot whilst responding to a jammed item on the automated stock collection robot.
Myer Pty Ltd faces two charges under section 21(1) of the OHS Act for failing to provide or maintain a safe working environment and two charges under section 23(1) of the OHS Act for failing to ensure persons other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks. WorkSafe alleges Myer breached the Act when it failed to ensure access points to the grid where the automated robots operated were guarded by an interlocked physical barrier, and when it failed to ensure access only occurred after the grid was de-energised and locked-out.
GeekPlus Australia Pty Ltd, the supplier of the automated robot, faces two charges under section 21(1) of the OHS Act for failing to provide or maintain a safe working environment. WorkSafe alleges GeekPlus Australia breached the Actby failing to ensure access to the grid only occurred once the automated robots were de-energised, and by failing to provide necessary supervision to ensure that its employees did not access the energised grid.
In a decision from a similar Queensland case, a major company was fined $125,000 after a worker was seriously injured while trying to fix a box packing robot, which frequently malfunctioned. The sentencing magistrate warned, "Large corporations that obtain commercial advantages from robotic and automated processes must ensure that workers required to work alongside such systems are adequately protected from foreseeable risks to their health and safety."
In Safe Work Australia’s recently launched AI and digital technologies guidance, employers are warned that technologies, including automated robots, can create new hazards or enhance existing hazards when “not appropriately designed, implemented and managed”.
Our OHS Reps site offers a Digital Work Systems HSR tool that is designed to assist HSRs in consulting and negotiating with employers about existing or proposed digital work systems affecting their DWG members. The tool outlines key digital work systems commonly used in workplaces and suggests controls to eliminate or reduce the potential risk their use may introduce to the workplace.
Read more: Department store and robotics supplier charged after warehouse fatality | WorkSafe Victoria