Article from: The Australian Written by: Ewin Hannan August 06, 2008
BREWING giant Foster's Australia Ltd has been fined $1.125 million and
slammed for inadequate work practices after the death of an employee
at its Abbotsford plant in Melbourne.
Cuu Huynh, 58, had his neck jammed between a handrail and the heavy
steel doors of a depalletiser, which used a conveyor belt to move empty
beer bottles, on April 13, 2006.
Mr Huynh, described by his family as a caring, hard-working father of three
who loved ballroom dancing, died in hospital a week later from asphyxiation.
County Court judge Jane Campton sharply criticised Foster's for failing to
take appropriate action after another employee had his head caught in a
similar incident in 2002.
Foster's pleaded guilty to failing to provide plant and systems of work that
were safe, and failing to provide enough information, instruction and
supervision to employees to ensure their workplace was safe.
Foster's was fined $562,500 on each count. If it had not pleaded guilty,
the fines would have totalled $1.5 million.
The fine is the largest for a single workplace death in Victorian history.
Esso was fined $2 million over the Longford gas explosion in 1998 that killed
two employees and injured eight workers.
John Merritt, executive director of health and safety at WorkSafe Victoria,
said the fine was justified. "This problem was known and it wasn't fixed until
a man died - that is what makes this case so serious," he said.
Before the accident, the workplace culture at the plant encouraged the
machine operators to maintain production by not stopping the depalletisers
when they were clearing jams or cleaning the machine.
"This was because a computer tracked down time for the machines and
supervisors queried operators over any stoppages," Judge Campton said.
"An added incentive for the operators to keep the machines running was
that they were permitted to leave work an hour earlier on the last shift of
the week if they had completed cleaning the machine."
No comments:
Post a Comment