Safety improvements expected from Woolworths

Woolworths and its subsidiary company Woolstar (which also employs staff for its distribution centres) have entered into a legal agreement with WorkSafe that requires them to carry out a range of safety improvements around forklifts and reach trucks.

This undertaking followed a 2008 incident at the Woolworths Wodonga distribution centre, where an unlicensed and unsupervised worker tried to use a reach truck to return a pallet to its place in an eight-metre high rack. As he did so, the reach truck’s mast hooked onto the pallet above the empty position, causing the load from the pallet he was raising to fall. Glass bottles of olive oil broke open on the roof of the truck, soaking him in oil. Although he didn’t suffer physical injuries, olive oil had to be washed from his face and eyes.

The undertaking is allowed for as an alternative to prosecution under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, and is enforceable through the courts if its conditions are not met.

“The worker operating the reach truck had only completed a day of basic training,” said WorkSafe Victoria’s Manufacturing and Logistics Director, Ross Pilkington. “He was shown how to use a truck by another storeperson - but after a few hours’ supervision, he was left to operate it on his own. Clearly he shouldn’t have been operating a reach truck - it wasn’t safe for him or his fellow workers, and it was pure luck that no one was injured.

“Woolworths and Woolstar have an obligation to make sure all trainee forklift operators are supervised by a licensed operator, and that trainees only operate equipment unsupervised when they’ve been deemed competent.”

Activities to improve safety undertaken by Woolworths and Woolstar include:

• An independent review of health and safety systems at the distribution centre and an implementation plan for corrective actions;
• A physical-hazards audit and a plan for corrective actions;
• A review of the Woolworths/Woolstar forklift-licensing system;
• Publication of a Forklift Licensing Guidance Note by Woolworths/Woolstar, which will be presented to the Wodonga Chamber of Commerce;
• Publish an article regarding the incident in Woolstar/Woolworths internal newsletter and an external industry newsletter/publication;
• Present a free safety seminar at WorkSafe Week or equivalent, presenting a case study on the circumstances of the incident, and the measures taken since the incident;
• Install mast cameras on to all reach truck forklifts at all their supermarket distribution centres to improve visibility for operators.

Woolworths and Woolstar are also making donations totalling $90,000 to The Royal Children’s Hospital; the Wodonga Health Services Emergency Department; and the Institute for Safety, Compensation, and Recovery Research (for a research project around manual handling of products in distribution centres).