Companies facing charges over workplace accidents

Two national employers have had legal proceedings filed against them from federal workplace health and safety regulator Comcare over workplace accidents that allegedly occurred in Adelaide in 2013.

Comcare has filed complaints and summonses in the Adelaide Magistrates Court against waste management company Transpacific Industries Pty Ltd for two charges, and construction company John Holland Pty Ltd for three charges, relating to breaches of the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011.

Each offence carries a maximum penalty of $1.5 million.

The charges against Transpacific relate to a fire at its Wingfield Chemical Waste Processing Plant near Port Adelaide on 25 July 2013.

Comcare alleges that Transpacific workers were conducting the company’s first production-scale trial to distil a new industrial solvent from a chemical waste product when a flash fire broke out from a large distillation tank.

The force of the fire knocked a worker to the ground from a distance of around five metres and he was treated in hospital for burns.

The John Holland matter involved an accident the following day on 26 July 2013 at the South Road Superway construction project in Adelaide’s north.

The alleged incident occurred when a portal crane collided with an elevated work platform causing injuries to the worker in the basket of the elevated work platform.

It is alleged that both companies failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their workers and exposed them to a risk of death or serious injury or illness.

The matters will be heard in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on dates to be set.

To find out more information on the types of workplace incidents you may be required to report on, visit the Comcare website.