On 12 May 2025, John Chamberlain (the defendant) was convicted by the Beenleigh Magistrates Court for two offences involving breaching his obligation as a worker under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) (‘the Act’). 

Specifically, the defendant was a workshop manager for a company that manufactured steel products. His role involved instructing, training and supervising other workers at a workshop and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the workshop.

On 1 August 2022, the defendant directed workers to move a one-tonne metal tub by positioning it on top of four metal load skates and then moving the tub while it was positioned on top of the load skates. The tub fell off the load skates onto a 17-year-old worker’s leg, and crushed the worker’s left leg, causing a midshaft femur fracture.

On 25 November 2022, the defendant directed a 16-year-old worker to operate a hydraulic guillotine at the workplace, in circumstances where:

• the worker was not supervised while he operated the hydraulic guillotine;
• the worker had not been adequately trained by the defendant, because the worker had not been deemed and recorded to be competent to operate the hydraulic guillotine; and
• the worker had not been adequately instructed on how to operate the hydraulic guillotine because he had not been instructed in and taken through the relevant safety procedures for the operation of the hydraulic guillotine.

In those circumstances, the worker crushed the tip of his middle finger on his right hand while he operated the hydraulic guillotine.

The gravamen of the offending was that the defendant, as a worker, had a duty to take reasonable care that his acts did not adversely affect the health and safety of others. In failing that duty, the defendant exposed other workers to risks of serious injury or death.

The court considered the nature of the offending, the defendant’s early plea of guilty, the defendant’s antecedents, the purpose of the Act, general and personal deterrence, and community denunciation. Ultimately, the court:

• imposed a fine of $20,000 for the offending that occurred on 1 August 2022;
• imposed a fine of $15,000 for the offending that occurred on 25 November 2022; and
• ordered the defendant to undertake a specific five-day training course regarding work health and safety obligations to be carried out by a registered training organisation (pursuant to section 241 of the Act).

The court found that the defendant’s failures were failures of a fundamental kind, and that the matters the defendant should have done, that is, safely instruct, train and supervise other workers, were matters that were not beyond the defendant’s capacity as an experienced worker.

Convictions were recorded for each offence.

The defendant was ordered to pay $1,500 in professional costs to OIR and two lots of $101.40 (one for each complaint) filing fees to the clerk of the Beenleigh Court.

OWHSP contact: enquiries@owhsp.qld.gov.au