Lack of training leads to $100,000 fine

A family-owned business in Queensland that produces firewood and its director have just been fined over $100,000 in relation to a workplace incident involving an untrained and unsupervised worker who had his fingers crushed while operating a log splitter in 2022.

The case

In WorkSafe Queensland v Toowoomba Firewood Pty Ltd it was found that the company is in the business of producing firewood. The process involves using mechanical log splitters which break tree logs into smaller logs of a size suitable for fireplaces.

Mechanical log splitters are meant to be a safer option over traditional axe splitting, as they require no manual labour or swinging motions. Additionally, they can split logs in a fraction of the time it would take for an individual to do the same job with an axe. A mechanical log splitter uses a motorised hydraulic system to drive a large wedge into the log. The pressure created by the pump is of such force that it splits the wood.

On the day of the incident, a new worker was given verbal instructions by a supervisor on the use of a log splitter. It was only a 5-minute explanation, and no demonstration was provided.

A few hours later, the worker placed his hands on both ends of a large log when using the splitter, causing his right hand to be crushed with his index finger requiring amputation and loss of function to other fingers.

The charges

The company pleaded guilty to failing to comply with its primary duty of care to provide adequate training and supervision, as well as failing to notify the regulator of the incident and failure to preserve the site of the incident.

The director of the company was sentenced for failure to exercise due diligence to ensure the company took the appropriate steps to manage the risks of the work task.

While the court considered the clean record of the company along with the guilty pleas, the judge deemed the objective seriousness of the offence, in light of the simple steps that should have been done to prevent the incident, to be serious enough to impose fines on the company. The company (PCBU) was fined $85,000 for breach of Section 19 of the WHS and $5,000 for each failure to notify and preserve the site. The director was also personally fined $12,500 for failures under Section 27 of the WHS Act.

Reasoning

• Section 19 of the WHS Act describes a company’s primary duty of care obligations regarding the health and safety of its employees. A business must provide information, training, and instruction to its staff for them to be able to use tools and operate equipment correctly, and do their work safely. And they must be supervised.

• While it is the duty of the business to provide those things in the first place, it is the responsibility of business owners and company directors to ensure those provisions and systems exist and are implemented, operated, monitored, and maintained. Therefore, onus for real-world implementation will always fall back on the directors, as they are the ones with the assurance role.

It's easy to determine in this case that the supervisor’s ineffective instruction and training of the employee in the use of the log splitter was the catalyst for the terrible outcome, but as mentioned, onus still rests fully on the business owners, even if the incident was because of someone else lower down the chain of command.

The duty to ensure the business provides training and proper supervision rests with the company directors.

The cost of a fine is far more than the cost of training someone to be aware of their WHS duties.

For more information on WHS training or WHS compliance services, or if you would like help to make your WHS management system even more robust, please feel free to contact us at train@courtenell.com.au or phone us on 02 9552 2066