Details of the Enforceable Undertaking can be found here. Pro Ten Holdings Pty Ltd was the owner of a farm in Griffith NSW, where a worker employed by a contractor was fatally injured when he was struck and run over by a reversing telehandler operated by another contractor employee.
The terms of the $250,000 Undertaking include that Pro Ten Holdings Pty Ltd (Pro Ten) must:
- Undertake research around technological solutions to significantly mitigate risks and enhance safety protocols around the movement of mobile plant in the workplace, within the industry.
- Customize and implement a comprehensive mobile app to enhance safety and risk management on chicken farms.
- Deliver a series of safety leadership programs to build capabilities at various levels within the agriculture sector.
- Sponsor an annual safety prize for three years to promote safety improvement.
This is the second Undertaking accepted by NSW in relation to the same incident, with Mr Alistair McDonald previously entering into a WHS Undertaking in February 2024.
As more prosecutions are commenced in Western Australia under the WHS Act, it will be interesting to see if any prosecutions are resolved by way of Enforceable WHS Undertakings (see section 216 of the WHS Act), which were not an available option under the OSH Act. However, WHS Undertakings are not available for ‘Category 1’ offences, so we will have to wait and see if such undertakings are utilised for less serious offences, or in circumstance where a ‘Category 1’ prosecution is downgraded to a ‘Category 2’ charge. Currently we have only seen one WHS Undertaking in Western Australia, entered into by Fortescue Limited in December 2023 for allegedly failing to produce documents or information to WorkSafe in contravention of section 171(7) of the WHS Act.
