Chance encounter by workplace inspector leads to day in court for Shepparton business

Aug 11, 2023

In court: A Shepparton business and its director have faced court after a wooden pallet and a forklift were used to make a makeshift platform for workers. Photo by Megan Fisher

A workplace inspector just happened to be passing a Shepparton business when they looked in and saw a worker using a wooden pallet on a forklift as a makeshift platform.

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The chance discovery led to a Shepparton business and its owner being fined $7000 in court and ordered to pay almost $5000 in costs.

Shepparton Tile Centre Pty Ltd and its director Francesco Latorre, 74, of Shepparton East, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to one charge each of failing to provide a safe workplace.

The court heard Latorre had engaged a plumbing company to install a heating gas flue above the verandah of the building at Shepparton Tile and Lighting Centre on March 25, 2021.

When the workers arrived it was discovered that neither company had organised for a temporary work platform for the plumbers to undertake their task.

A Victorian WorkCover prosecutor told the court Latorre put a pallet on the tines of the forklift and drove it to the front of the verandah to be used as a makeshift platform.

He then raised the tines of the forklift so one of the workers could kneel on it to undertake the work.

The prosecutor said the pallet was not secured to the forklift and there were no barriers on the side of it to prevent the worker from falling from a height he said was about 3-3.5m.

A workplace inspector drove past “just by chance” as the plumber was kneeling on the pallet, the prosecutor said.

A scissor lift was hired the next day to allow the plumbers to do the work.

Defence solicitor Susan Campbell said her client had expected the plumbers to arrive with their own platform and when they did not do so, he provided the makeshift platform on the forklift “so they could carry out their task (that day)”.

“He knew it was the wrong thing to do,” she said.

“It was not a deliberate act to avoid his obligations under the Workplace Health and Safety Act.

“It wasn’t his intention to put them at risk, but it is conceded he did put them at risk.”

She also noted that by putting the pallet through the tines on the forklift, it was not strictly necessary to use separate ties to stop it moving because it would not.

Ms Campbell said her client had run the business for 40 years and had not had any previous contraventions of workplace health and safety.

She also said the likelihood of an incident like this happening again was “virtually impossible”.

Ms Campbell argued that the business was a family-run one that Latorre owned with his wife and asked the magistrate to consider the financial impact on him and the company.

Magistrate Simon Zebrowski fined Latorre $2000 and Shepparton Tile Centre Pty Ltd $5000, but no convictions were recorded.

He also ordered that both Latorre and the company pay $2477 each in legal costs for WorkCover.

In handing down his sentence, Mr Zebrowski said he had to take into account the importance of a business such as this to the local economy, as well as balancing it with companies having to ensure a safe workplace.