Ettason (Vic) Pty Ltd is an Asian food wholesaler that operates from a factory in Dandenong. The business has been fined following an incident in which a labour hire worker was crushed between palletised stock and a moving forklift.
In February 2023 a labour hire worker was picking product to stack on a pallet in an aisle of the warehouse using an electronic rise-on pallet jack. At the same time another employee was operating a forklift to move palletised stock between aisles on the warehouse floor. The forklift driver’s view was obscured by the palletised stock stacked on the tines.
There were no barriers or other measures in place to notify the forklift driver that there was a picker working in that aisle.
Although the labour hire worker heard the forklift approaching, he was struck before he had time to respond, crushing him between the forklift and the stock on his pallet jack. The worker sustained crush injuries and a serious compound fracture to his lower leg, which required surgery.
Ettason had completed a Traffic Management Plan (TMP), however the hazard of interacting forklifts and stock pickers was neither identified nor controlled. Ettason’s TMP did not ensure that pedestrians and mobile plant were separated by time or barriers, or through engineering controls. A yellow chain that had previously been installed at the entry to the aisle was not in use and it was covered in thick dust.
WorkSafe had attended the Ettason site many times in the years before this incident and had issued Improvement Notices, three of which (issued in 2018 and 2019) related directly to the risk of mobile plant colliding with pedestrians. On each occasion, guidance material was provided to the Offender and the possible means of achieving compliance were clearly set out. The yellow chain had previously been implemented to achieve compliance with one of the prior Improvement Notices regarding traffic management.
In hearing the case the Court noted that forklifts working in close proximity to pedestrian traffic is an obvious and common risk, and Ettason had been on notice from the previously issued Improvement Notices. It is indicative of a failure to care for worker safety that the systems put in place previously had not been maintained.
At the time of the incident the maximum penalty for failing to provide a safe workplace was approximately $1.6M. The Court imposed on Ettason a fine of $30,000 without conviction for this latest in a series of failures to keep workers safe from forklifts.
You can learn more about forklift safety at our OHS Reps Forklift Safety page. WorkSafe publishes a Forklift Safety Guide as well as guidance on Developing a forklift traffic management plan.
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