Safety breaches cost $250,000

By Jaimee Damon
ASIXA Pty Ltd has been convicted and fined $250,000 after the company pleaded guilty to two workplace health and safety charges laid after an incident in July 2006.
The incident occurred in Dandenong and has left a man in a permanent vegetative state after a 700kg crate of glass fell on him.
The injured man was using a forklift to unload the glass from a truck at Asixa’s warehouse in Quantum Close, Dandenong. The company has since moved.
The glass fell on the man when he got off the forklift to adjust the load.
WorkSafe executive director John Merritt said the incident was a warning that workplace deaths were not the only issue to be looked at.
“In terms of the outcome for the individual and their family, this is one of the worst cases that WorkSafe has had to deal with,” Mr Merritt said.
“Forklifts are among the most common, and dangerous, pieces of equipment in Victorian workplaces yet serious incidents still occur, frequently to people with inadequate training.”
The hurt man was driving the forklift without a certificate of competency to operate the machine and was not given sufficient training, instruction or information on the forklift, Mr Merritt said.
Since the incident Asixa has made safety improvements, including assessment and training of forklift operators, new risk assessments and induction policies, as well as first-aid training for some employees.
Judge Chettle, who convicted Asixa, said that although safety improvements were made after the incident, they should have been made sooner.