A paper mill in Ettamogah, near Albury, in NSW has been fined $1 million over an incident in 2018 which saw two workers killed after they were overcome by hydrogen sulphide while completing maintenance work at the plant.
Benjamin Pascall and Lyndon Quinlivan died on May 24, 2018, at the plant, operated by Norske Skog Paper Mills Australia. A fellow worker was hospitalised following the incident, after suffering hydrogen sulphide poisoning and hypoxic respiratory failure. He was so severely affected that he was placed onto life support in an induced coma and spent two weeks in hospital.
Norske Skog is part of an international network of paper companies, and appeared in the District Court, with prosecution by SafeWork NSW. The company pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the WHS Act, for exposing workers to a risk of serious injury or death.
Judge for the District Court, David Russell, fined the business $1.3 million but reduced the fine by 25 per cent after taking into account the company’s early guilty plea. The company is also required to pay for an educational safety video to highlight the ways the risks present that caused the incident, could have been reduced.
Judge Russell found Norske Skog’s level of culpability in the high range and “the injury, emotional harm, loss or damage caused by the offence was substantial”.
“In summarising these Victim Impact Statements, I cannot possibly convey the searing pain and loss experienced by each family member, which was expressed in court as the statements were read out.”
Representatives from the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union have called on the federal government to adopt a nationally consistent industrial manslaughter legislative framework. David Henry, from the AMWU, said: “it’s the only way that we can foresee that the necessary deterrents are going to be put in place to stop this needless waste of workers’ lives.”
Industrial manslaughter is not part of NSW’s WHS legislation, despite coming into effect in many other states this year.