FERTILISER company Interpact has been fined $72,000 after a labour hire worker fell from an overhead walkway and died.
Interpact pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a working environment where labour hire workers were not, so far as was practicable, exposed to a hazard that was within the company’s control.
John James Banks, a labour hire employee, was at Interpact’s facility on 24 January 2008 helping to transfer fertiliser from trucks to concrete storage bays.
Banks had been instructed to monitor the work from the walkway. The flooring panels of the walkway had not been secured to it by anything other than their own weight. Banks fell 13m to the ground from the overhead walkway, and died from his injuries.
WorkSafe WA told the court that Interpact should have ensured the flooring of the overhead walkway was properly maintained before permitting workers to access that area. Alternative safe working methods would have involved the use of a fall arrest system.
Following Banks’ death, Interpact bought purpose designed clips to secure the grid mesh to the walkway, at a cost of about $5000.
According to WorkSafe WA, the fine was a large one, but was consistent with the level of negligence exhibited by the company.