Heavy engineering company Bradken Pty Ltd has been fined $100,000 over the 2005 death of a 21-year-old worker at its Henderson foundry.
Bradken Resources Pty Ltd pleaded guilty and was fined in the Fremantle Magistrates Court on Tuesday for failing to ensure the safety or health of a person not being an employee.
A labour hire worker who had been at the foundry for less than three hours was killed when struck by molten metal as a furnace exploded.
The worker who died had been undertaking a general workplace induction in the area where he was to be working. He had been taken to the furnace deck to observe the operation of the furnace and associated tasks.
WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said the tragic incident should serve as a reminder that safe systems of work needed to be in place, and they needed to be followed.
"There were no specific safe work procedures in place for the task the workers were engaged in that day," Ms Lyhne said.
"Some of the employees at the foundry had attended training a couple of years before, but the men who were undertaking the task of furnace operation had not received adequate training in the correct procedures for adding the ingredients to be melted and the early recognition of operating problems.
"Bradken Resources had assumed control of this workplace only a matter of days before this tragic incident, but the duty of care to provide and maintain a safe workplace exists from day one and there is no excuse to delay ensuring that the workplace is safe."
