Prosecutions

t appears that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have not been any prosecutions during this period, and consequently no update to prosecution outcomes in Victoria - to find out whether there are any new prosecutions before next week, check WorkSafe Prosecution Result Summaries and Enforceable Undertakings webpage.

UK: Firm fined £200k after warehouse worker loses leg

A parcels firm has been fined £200,000 (AUD$358,668) after a Scottish warehouse worker lost a leg. The worker was hit by a forklift truck and trapped under the vehicle for an hour. Surgeons couldn’t save his left leg which had to be amputated above the knee. DX Network Services was criticised by Sheriff Douglas Brown over the “clearly foreseeable” incident. The firm had initially blamed the worker and the forklift driver for the incident. But the sheriff said there had been a “systemic failure” by the company to separate forklifts and pedestrians at the Eurocentral depot in Lanarkshire. DX Networks, which employs 3,500 people in the UK, admitted a criminal breach of workplace safety laws. The warehouse operative, 58, spent six weeks in hospital, including 15 days in intensive care, after the incident in January 2018. His wife had to give up her job to become his full-time carer and their home has had to be modified. Sheriff Brown said he would have fined the firm £300,000 (AUD$537,800) had it not pleaded guilty. Read more: Daily RecordSource: Risks 954

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