QR fined over workers' deaths

Ren Lanzon | 28th November 2009

GLADSTONE union workers yesterday welcomed the news that their employer, Queensland Rail, had been fined after pleading guilty over the deaths of two workers.

The Queensland Rail, Tram and Bus Union says QR workers should be involved in matters that involve workplace health and safety.

Chrissy Harris

GLADSTONE union workers yesterday welcomed the news that their employer, Queensland Rail, had been fined after pleading guilty over the deaths of two workers killed at Mindi, south-west of Mackay, in 2007.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union spokesman Craig Allen said the union was pleased that QR had been fined $650,000 and made to pay an additional $130,000 in costs.

However, he said the union believed QR deserved the maximum penalty of $750,000 and that the maximum penalty for a billion-dollar-plus operator like QR should be much higher.

At the hearing, held in the Industrial Magistrates Court in Mackay on Thursday, QR pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to discharge their workplace health and safety obligations.

“Workers should always be involved in matters relating to workplace safety,” he said.

RTBU secretary Owen Doogan said QR’s track record was woefully inadequate when it came to the health and safety of its workforce.

“We’re glad to finally have an outcome after a lengthy inquiry – it must come as significant relief to the men’s families,” he said.

“It’s really important that organisations, particularly large ones like QR, make workplace health and safety their top priority and it has been our union’s primary goal to ensure that they do so.

“It’s really been a ‘top-down’ issue for the organisation, with management outsourcing the overhaul of the system to American consultancy, DuPont like the proverbial hot potato.”

He said QR failed to consult with its workforce as to the best way to do the overhaul.

Gary Watkins and Jamie Adams were struck and killed by a track machine while working on a coal rail line at Mindi on December 7, 2007.