A Welshpool industrial spray painting and sandblasting company has been dealt the biggest ever fine under WA’s workplace safety and health laws over the death of a 16-year-old worker in 2023.
RPC Surface Treatment Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to ensure the health and safety of a worker and was issued a global fine in the Perth Magistrates Court yesterday.
In June 2023, a labourer who assisted with spray painting and sandblasting was killed when a steel beam weighing approximately 425kg suspended from an overhead monorail system fell on his chest.
The steel beam was attached to the monorail at each end by S-hooks (fabricated steel hooks in an s-shape) connected to chain slings. The beam had been primed and coated and was left suspended to dry in the main spray booth.
Early on the morning of June 15, the labourer and three other workers were instructed to move the beams to another area where they were to be collected later in the day.
When the labourer was pushing the beam by hand, the S-hooks deformed and straightened out under the load and the beam fell onto him, causing fatal injuries.
The workers at RPC routinely selected lifting devices by a process of trial and error, and they were not required to determine the weight of the load prior to suspending it.
The weight was estimated via a visual inspection and whether it had been unloaded by hand or with a forklift, and the S-hooks did not have a known working load limit or rated capacity.
In March 2021, WorkSafe inspectors had issued a Prohibition Notice to RPC prohibiting the activity of working underneath suspended loads.
While this notice did not relate to the monorail or S-hooks directly, it did direct RPC to the same risk, namely being crushed by falling objects while working under suspended loads.
WorkSafe Commissioner Sally North said the risks of working under suspended loads were well known, and this company would have been well aware of the requirements.
“The company had previously been issued a Prohibition Notice that had prohibited working under suspended loads, so there is no question they were aware of that risk, but the workplace had inadequate systems of work for managing it,” Ms North said.
“Lifting devices are covered by an Australian Standard, and in a workplace such as this where heavy items are lifted and worked on frequently, it would be expected that the Standard’s strict control measures would be in place.
“Persons conducting a business or undertaking should conduct a thorough risk assessment of work activities involving the lifting of heavy items in consultation with workers and must put controls in place to reduce the risk of injury to workers.
“This was a particularly tragic incident as it involved the death of a very young worker. The substantial penalty is evidence of how seriously the courts view incidents of this nature.”