Prosecution Details

Being an employer at a workplace at which there were industrial lift trucks, failed to ensure that a person operating the industrial lift truck was a person who had documentary evidence that he satisfied the competency requirements of the National Guidelines for Occupational Health and Safety Competency Standards for the Operation of Loadshifting Equipment and Other Types of Specified Equipment for loadshifting equipment; contrary to Regulation 4.55(1)(a) of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations 1996 made under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984.

The defendant operated a business constructing swimming pools and spas.

The defendant employed a number of persons who were required to operate industrial lift trucks in the course of their duties including the forklift operator.

On 3 February 2003, the forklift operator was operating an industrial lift truck at the workplace. A fellow employee was injured when he was struck by the industrial lift truck. The employee had decided to ride on the back of the industrial lift truck and tried to jump on the industrial lift truck as it was reversing. The accident was not the forklift operator's fault, however in the course of the investigation it became apparent that the forklift operator had not undertaken any formalised training and instruction in the use of industrial lift trucks at the workplace.

The defendant pleaded guilty.