Rockhampton employer put on good behaviour bond for workplace safety breach

A Rockhampton employer has been put on a good behaviour bond of $10,000 for two years after a worker's leg had to be amputated following a workplace incident in February 2008.

Michael Boyd Franks pleaded guilty in the Rockhampton Industrial Magistrates Court on 12 May 2009 to breaching section 24 of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 having failed to ensure workplace safety.

The court heard the worker was replacing an excavator bucket lip, the heavy steel edge attached to the front and bottom of the excavator bucket.

The task was performed at the premises of a company that engaged Mr Franks' business to do the work.

The worker was grinding the excavator bucket in preparation for attachment of the steel lip which lay nearby, partially on two workshop trestles (approximately 600mm high), and on the tynes of a forklift. Both the trestles and forklift were owned by the company which engaged Mr Franks.

One of the company's workers asked Mr Franks if the forklift could be used for another task. Mr Franks agreed.

The worker operating the forklift attempted to place the lip solely on the trestles, but it overbalanced and struck Mr Frank's worker on the leg, causing significant injuries which resulted in the surgical amputation of his right leg below the knee.

The Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigation revealed Mr Franks did not identify the hazard of the excavator lip being suspended by the forklift and trestles, and did not assess the risk to his worker nearby.

Industrial Magistrate Mr John McGrath ordered Mr Franks pay investigation and court costs totalling $1,265.40. No conviction was recorded.

The prosecution was brought by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, a part of the Department of Justice and Attorney-General.