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EnviroWaste’s Big Bill: Why a Workplace Accident Resulted in a $950k Enforceable Undertaking
Two years ago in March of 2020, while working onsite at the Hampton Downs landfill unloading waste, a 60-year-old truck driver was struck by a loader driven by another worker and crushed between the trailer of his truck and the back of the loader.
WorkSafe investigated the incident and based on their findings they filed a charge against the man’s employer, EnviroWaste Services. WorkSafe’s charge alleged that EnviroWaste ought to have previously taken a number of measures to protect their workers from the risk of harm that the job of waste management inevitably brings.
These measures included the provision of radar or sensor equipment to signal when drivers were within four metres of pedestrians, the implementation of a site-specific traffic management plan, and ensuring that workers received appropriate vehicle operation training.
Instead of pursuing legal proceedings against EnviroWaste, WorkSafe accepted an enforceable undertaking (EU) from EnviroWaste as a suitable alternative. The cost of this EU was a minimum of $950k. The primary reason why WorkSafe accepted EnviroWaste’s EU was because the $950k figure that they proposed exceeded the amount that even the courts were likely to have demanded in penalties.
The EU payment went to cover many things, such as financial reparations to the victim’s family, an artificial intelligence safety technology initiative, a waste industry community learning program, and funding toward a youth drug and alcohol program in the Waikato region.
It also covered certain initiatives that are aimed at managing dynamic risk in the workplace, including the development and implementation of a worker engagement tool for work variability and adaption, the development and implementation of a methodology for worker critical analysis and thinking skills, and the development and implementation of a methodology to better understand dynamic risk.
Such workplace incidents are rare, but when they do unfortunately occur, they serve as a reminder that effective health and safety measures can quite literally save a life. And from a fiscal perspective, they show that unjustified cost-cutting, no matter how safely you may believe it to be done, is most often not worth the increased risk that comes along with it.
Cases like EnviroWaste’s highlight that proper workplace health and safety policies are a benefit to your staff, and their wellbeing in the workplace, and to your company balance sheet if such an unfortunate and unwanted event were to ever happen. A review of your business’ health and safety policies is something that all business who manage risk as a part of daily operations should bear in mind going into the New Year.