Unsafe unloading processes kill two workers in quick succession, Best Benchtop and Stone Pty Ltd and Australian Rong Hua Fu Pty Ltd were heavily fined.

Two businesses have been fined a total of $800,000 over separate but alarmingly similar fatalities involving the handling of heavy materials in confined spaces. A regulator has explained how to prevent such incidents, including through consultation processes.

In February 2020, a worker was helping Best Benchtop and Stone Pty Ltd unload stone slabs from a shipping container at the business's Campbellfield, Victoria premises, when about 30 slabs weighing a total of nearly seven tonnes fell and pinned him to the container's interior wall, causing fatal crush injuries.

Two months later and 60 kilometres away, in Dingley Village, an employee of Australian Rong Hua Fu Pty Ltd, trading as a RHF Stone, was fatally crushed between three 250-kilogram stone slabs and a shipping container's interior wall.

As reported by OHS Alert in early 2022, WorkSafe Victoria charged Australia Rong Hua Fu with three breaches of section 21 ("Duties of employers to employees") of the State Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and charged Best Benchtop and Stone with multiple breaches of section 26 ("Duties of persons who manage or control workplaces") of the Act.

Australia Rong Hua Fu and Best Benchtop and Stone both pleaded guilty and were convicted and fined $475,000 and $325,000 respectively in separate County Court proceedings on 14 December 2022.

In the first case, the Court heard the Australia Rong Hua Fu employee (a former director of the company) was tasked with using a screwdriver to separate slabs inside the shipping container and then driving a wedge between them so that they could be gripped by a forklift's clamp attachment.

The three 250-kilogram slabs – all unrestrained – toppled onto her as she was hammering a wedge into an opening, it heard.

A WorkSafe investigation found the employer contravened the Act by failing to implement systems to ensure slabs were stacked at a safe angle, workers remained outside the fall shadow of the slabs at all times, and temporary restraints were used to limit the movement of slabs during the unloading process.

WorkSafe also found the forklift being used at the time of the fatality was not rated to be used with the attachments fitted to it; was fitted with a makeshift counterweight to increase its capacity; had a boom extension that had been fitted in an unsafe manner; could not be operated within its safe working capacity when the boom was used; and did not have the required spring-activated safety lock on its clamp – the device had been replaced with rubber bands.

Further, WorkSafe found the storage racks used to house the slabs in the employer's warehouse were not load-rated and had been extended (to increase their capacity) with unsecured wooden blocks, creating the risk of inadvertent movement.

Seeking to reduce its penalty, the employer told the Court that prior to the fatality, it had not been on notice to take steps to prevent the instability of the slabs it imported and sold because it had not experienced any incidents where slabs were noticeably unstable during the unloading process.

But the risk of stone slabs toppling over was well known in the industry, and it was clearly foreseeable that a slab falling in or around a shipping container could seriously injure or kill any person in the vicinity.

The company's explanation for the breach of duty in respect to this charge, and the other two charges, is a common one, but in no way mitigating. In the face of an obvious risk taking no action because the risk had not eventuated is no excuse.

Employers are expected to be proactive in identifying and responding to risks to health and safety.

In the second case, the worker assisting Best Benchtop and Stone was similarly killed while separating slabs, while the business's director moved the slabs with a forklift.

The Court found it had been reasonably practicable for the business to reduce the risk by not moving the slabs individually, instead using either a mobile crane or forklift fitted with a container mast and stone handling attachments to move the slabs in their complete packs of 15.

It also found the business should have used temporary restraints such as support frames, chains and straps to prevent any unintended movement of the slabs during the unloading process.

After the two businesses were sentenced, WorkSafe health and safety executive director Dr Narelle Beer said, "We don't want to see any more families endure the pain of losing a loved one because of incidents that could have easily been prevented if employers had taken seriously their responsibility to do everything reasonably possible to keep their workers safe."

WorkSafe said managing risks associated with unloading containers involves consulting with suppliers on the best shipping configuration for a safe and easy unloading phase.

It said employers should implement a system for assessing whether loads can be safely unloaded and determining a safe unloading sequence.

Businesses should ensure containers are sitting level, carefully examine loads to ensure stability before releasing transport restraints, ensure no one enters the fall shadow of an object at any time, and ensure any needed engineering controls (such as additional load restraints) can be introduced from outside the fall shadow.

Further, employers must have their lifting gear checked regularly by a competent or licensed person in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions, and ensure forklifts have the appropriate load rating for all fitted attachments and are used as intended.