Waste recycling company fined $330,000 for gross negligence and non-compliance with notice

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A Bayswater waste recycling company has been fined a total of $330,000 (and ordered to pay an additional $234,000 in costs) after being found guilty of gross negligence over a 2016 incident in which a labour hire worker’s arm was amputated at the shoulder.

Resource Recovery Solutions Pty Ltd was found guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court in July of two offences - gross negligence in failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment for a labour hire worker, and non-compliance with an improvement notice issued by WorkSafe.

Yesterday the company was fined $310,000 for the gross negligence offence and $20,000 for the improvement notice offence.

In January 2016, a worker at Resource Recovery Solutions had his arm amputated at the shoulder when it was caught in the crush point between a conveyor belt and a roller at the automated recycling plant.

He had been working as a “picker”, a worker whose job it was to manually remove unsuitable items from conveyor belts and to clear blockages or jams in various machines.

A blockage had been cleared and the belts had been restarted when the worker reached in to remove a rock and was dragged into the crush point.

There was no guarding around the crush points of the belt, and there was no lockout tag out procedure followed to isolate the moving parts of the plant when removing blockages.

WorkSafe WA Commissioner Darren Kavanagh said today the gross negligence verdict was significant.

“This decision is important as it is the first time an entity has been found guilty of gross negligence under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the most serious offence possible under that Act,” Mr Kavanagh said.

“The obligation on WorkSafe as a prosecutor to prove that a company has been grossly negligent is particularly difficult.

 “The company had a long history of flouting workplace safety laws. In September 2013, another worker at this plant was killed when an overloaded roof panel collapsed and crushed him.

“WorkSafe inspectors visited the workplace and found that numerous conveyor belts were not guarded. They were reassured that the plant was fully automated and workers were not present when the plant was running.

“Another worker suffered a broken arm in February 2015 when his arm was dragged into a moving conveyor belt which again had no guarding.

“WorkSafe issued an Improvement Notice requiring guarding to be installed on crush points of the belts, but this was not complied with despite several reminder letters being sent to the employer.

“The company Director advised that the notice had been complied with, but this worker had his arm literally torn off by an unguarded conveyor belt.

“The employer in this case has continued to disregard the safety of workers by allowing them to work with conveyor belts with unguarded crush points even after numerous incidents at that workplace.

“The Magistrate stated in her decision that the disregard for safety was blatant and went well beyond mere neglect.

“The Magistrate concluded beyond reasonable doubt that the company acted or failed to act in disregard of the likelihood of causing death or serious harm to a person to whom a duty was owed.

“It’s worth noting that this incident occurred before penalties for breaches of workplace safety laws were increased in 2018, so the maximum fine available to the Magistrate for the gross negligence offence was $500,000. If this incident had occurred after October 2018, the maximum available fine would have been $2.7million, a significant increase.

“This complete disregard for worker safety is the precise reason we have gross negligence provisions in the State’s workplace safety laws, and this case should send out a strong warning to all employers to protect the safety of their workers.”

Media Contact: Caroline De Vaney, 6251 2363 or 0408 927563 (media queries only).

caroline.devaney@dmirs.wa.gov.au

Follow @WorkSafeWA on Twitter

WorkSafe
Media release
10 Nov 2020

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