Workplace manslaughter fine more than doubled to $3m

A stonemasonry company that was the first to be convicted under Victoria’s workplace manslaughter laws has had its fine more than doubled on appeal; the fine was over the death of a worker fatally crushed at a Somerton warehouse.

LH Holding Management Pty Ltd, trading as Universal Stone and Marble, was fined $1.3 million with conviction in the Victorian Supreme Court in February 2024. The company had pleaded guilty to a single charge of engaging in negligent conduct that constituted a breach of a duty owed to another person and caused their death.

After pleading guilty to a single charge of being an officer of a company that committed workplace manslaughter — a contravention solely attributable to failure to take reasonable care — the company’s sole director was also convicted and placed on a two-year Community Corrections Order.

The company’s original fine was set aside by the Victorian Supreme Court following an appeal, with it ordered to pay a fine of $3 million. An appeal against the director’s sentence was dismissed.

Michael Tsahrelias, a 25-year-old subcontractor, died after a forklift being operated by the director with a raised load on a sloping driveway tipped over and landed on top of him.

It was reasonably practicable, a WorkSafe Victoria investigation found, for the company to reduce the risk of serious injury or death by ensuring that the forklift was driven with the load as low to the ground as possible; driven in reverse down any slope or incline; only operated when other people were at a safe distance; and not driven across or turned on any slope or incline.

Failure by the company to implement these measures was negligent, WorkSafe Victoria said in a statement, “because it was a great falling short of the standard of care that would have been taken by a reasonable person in the circumstances and it involved a high risk of death or serious injury”.

“This young man’s death was a completely preventable tragedy — one entirely caused by the employer’s negligence and complete disregard for basic health and safety obligations,” WorkSafe Victoria Executive Director of Health and Safety Sam Jenkin said. “While no penalty will ever make up for a life lost, today’s decision reinforces that WorkSafe — and the courts — will hold negligent employers accountable when they fail in their ultimate responsibility to protect the lives of their workers.”

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