Key Points:

• • The worker was injured while delivering building materials

• • Employer failed to put a safe system of work in place.

Summary:

Under Victoria’s workplace health and safety laws, an employer can’t just instruct a worker to perform a task in a particular way. It is incumbent upon them to devise a safe system of work that ensures staff follow the correct procedures.

In this matter, the employer had failed to do so, resulting in severe injuries to a worker.

Case Details:

The worker, aged in his late 40s, was employed by a building materials company as a delivery driver.

On the day of the incident, he had delivered a load of 9-metre fibreglass sheeting to a factory. Two people at the location instructed the delivery driver to unload the sheets directly onto the roof of the building.

Feeling he wasn’t in a position to refuse the instruction, the man began unloading the delivery. As he lifts one of the fibreglass sheets, a gust of wind catches it like a sail, throwing the man off the truck.

His injuries included spinal damage, head injuries and hearing loss.

Carbone Lawyers, acting for the injured worker, sued the man’s employer for failing to provide a safe system of work and adequate assistance. The company that owned the factory and employed the people whose actions had contributed to the man’s injuries was also sued.

Outcome:

A settlement was reached before it went to court, with the man receiving a lump sum payment in addition to his WorkCover compensation entitlements. The total amount was equivalent to a jury verdict of approximately $500,000.