A family-owned scrap metal business has been sentenced to a fine of $35,000 after an employee was seriously injured in a forklift incident in 2021.
Victorian Metal Traders Pty Ltd (VMT) is the leading scrap metal recycling company in Victoria. They are buyers and suppliers of all grades and quantities of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous metals, sourcing scrap metals from all areas of Victoria and exporting globally.
At their Campbellfield workplace they have a large staging area where shipping containers are loaded onto semi-trailers. Trucks, and members of the public, drive into the area to access a weighbridge and unload scrap metal. The yard was shared by pedestrians, vehicles and forklifts with no means of separating their movements.
In October 2021 a VMT yard manager was walking through the yard toward the office when he was struck from behind by a 500kg steel bin that was being carried by a forklift driven by another employee. The yard manager was knocked under the bin whilst the forklift continued to move forward, resulting in a spinal injury that led to him requiring a surgical discectomy to fuse his neck.
At the time of the incident VMT had a procedure in place that correctly identified the risks associated with forklifts interacting with pedestrians and the need to separate the two, however no measures had been taken to ensure the separation.
It was reasonably practicable for VMT to develop a traffic management plan that included controls measures such as clearly designated exclusion zones, clearly marked walkways and crossing, or physical barriers to separate pedestrians and vehicles, and to clearly communicate the plan to employees. Their failure to do so resulted in a life changing injury to their employee.
Forklifts cause more workplace deaths and injuries than any other piece of equipment, and more than half of forklift-related fatalities have involved pedestrians. Even a slow-moving forklift can crush, injure, or kill a pedestrian. WorkSafe publishes guidance for employers on how to manage the well-known hazards of forklifts on their Developing a forklift traffic management plan and Traffic management pages.
That the fine in this case was just $35,000 for exposing workers and members of the public to the risk of serious harm or death is very disappointing. Vehicle/pedestrian interface is a well-known hazard and the company was aware of it; the level of harm that the risk could lead to is serious (including potential death); and the company has adequate resources to properly manage safety matters. The maximum applicable penalty for failure to provide a safe workplace at the time of this offence was approximately $1.63M.
In February 2025 the Sentencing Advisory Council released a report to the Victorian Government making 12 recommendations for reform regarding the sentencing of OHS offences in Victoria. This included significantly increasing maximum penalties for breaching OHS duties in line with community expectations. The Victorian Government is yet to provide a response to this report.
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