Barry Bros, Guilty of Unsafe Work Practices.

Manufacturers' Monthly - 25 March 2009

A WASTE management company has acknowledged the potential impact of
a workplace health and safety failings telling a magistrate contracts worth
millions of dollars would be jeopardised if it was convicted.

Barry Bros Specialised Services pleaded guilty last week to one charge of
failing to provide and maintain a safe system of work before Melbourne
Magistrate Felicity Broughton. The company was charged with having
unsafe systems of work after a high-pressure cleaning hose and restraining
device failed during routine cleaning in the Burnley Tunnel on 3 June 2006.

A nearby employee of another company received serious leg injuries in the
incident. Barry Bros General Manager, Steven Pewtress, told the court a
conviction would affect its capacity to tender for public sector work, which
accounted for half its $50-million turnover.

WorkSafe argued that a conviction was warranted as the use of high-
pressure hoses had inherent dangers and that having chosen to conduct
such a business Barry Bros was responsible for ensuring work was
conducted safely. Barry Brothers was not convicted, but was fined
$60,000. Magistrate Broughton said the firm took outstanding steps to
improve safety after the incident, had demonstrated remorse and been of
good character since it began in 1958. Had it not pleaded guilty, she said,
the company would have been convicted and fined it $80,000.

Barry Brothers operates in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and
South Australia and was contracted by another company to carry out high
pressure pipe cleaning services to flush drainage pipes under the Burnley
Tunnel in Melbourne.

It engaged a third company, Total Gas Care Pty Ltd to use Closed Circuit
Television to check the drains after which Barry Brothers’employees would
clean them. The CCTV operator was a deemed employee of Barry Brothers.
A fitting connecting a high pressure water line to a control valve failed as did
a device to restrain the high pressure water line during thewater-jetting
process. The water line whipped around in an uncontrolled wayhitting the
CCTV operator’s lower left leg causing serious injuries, including a
15 centimetre wide open wound and a broken tibia. His other leg was also
hurt. Had Barry Brothers complied with the Australian Standard which
requires an exclusion zone when operating high-pressure cleaning equipment
and inducted the injured worker, the injury would not have happened.

WorkSafe’s Executive Director John Merritt said that particularly in tightening
economic times safety had to be a priority. “It is an investment in the future
and a fundamental part of doing business. “If you don’t, as was said in this case,
your business is at risk. Financial penalties imposed by the courts are only a
small part of the financial impact that injuries and deaths create. “It doesn’t
matter if the people affected by your work are direct employees, contractors,
other people working nearby or members of the public. Safety obligations are
clear and have been in place, largely unchanged, for decades. “Making safety
improvement after the event is better than nothing, but not much consolation
for the person who’s been hurt or their family.”