A cosmetics distribution company was convicted and fined $75,000 at the Magistrates Court in Moorabbin, Australia recently following an incident in which a worker inside a cage was dropped by a forklift.
Total Beauty Network Pty Ltd was charged with failing to provide a safe working environment and failing to maintain safe systems of work over the incident which caused the worker to suffer multiple vertebrae fractures requiring a spinal fusion and an extensive period of rehabilitation.
The court was told that employees at the company’s Carnegie warehouse were expected to get into a cage, raised on a forklift operated by the warehouse manager, in order to retrieve products from high racking.
This system of work meant the business avoided taking the time to safely retrieve a large box of stock with the forklift, place it on the ground to select particular items and return it to the high racking.
On Oct. 20, 2014, a worker was lifted in the cage to a top rack to retrieve products. When the warehouse manager lowered the forklift, the cage snagged on a beam of racking and fell several meters to the ground with the worker inside.
The court heard that the cage was not designed to carry workers for picking stock, nor was the forklift designed to carry a cage.
The court also heard that the warehouse manager did not hold a license to operate the forklift.
He was charged with one count of failing to hold a license in accordance with regulations and was convicted and fined $2,500.
Author Kori Shafer-Stack, Editor, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in post-injury response procedures and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: [email protected].
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