Safety and Risk Management in Workplace: A Case Study of Kenoss Contractors

The report discusses the death of the truck driver Michael Booth in the Kenoss work site of Canberra due to the breaching of the workplace health and safety issues. The workplace hazards and safety compliance have been discussed in detail. The recommendations have been given as to how to improve the situation in the best ways.

Running head: SAFETY AND RISK MANAGEMENT
Safety and Risk Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
The following report has discussed on the several issues relating to breaching of the workplace
health and safety issues. The chosen scenario for this is the death of the truck driver Michael
Booth in the Kenoss work site of Canberra. The contractors had not warned the driver of the
risks of electrical wires being scattered around in the area. The driver had been electrocuted and
it led to his death. The various reasons for the breaching of the workplace health and safety has
been investigated in this report. The contribution of the Safework Australia has been discussed as
well. The recommendations have been given as to how the improve the situation in the best
ways.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the event......................................................................................................................3
Reaction of the company.................................................................................................................4
The workplace hazards and safety compliance...............................................................................5
Resolving of the issue......................................................................................................................7
Recommendations for the improvement of the situation.................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The aim of the following paper is to discover the various issues within the safety and risk
management issues of the workplaces. The company that has been chosen for this assignment is
the Canberra Construction Company. The safety issues have been very important all over the
world for different reasons. This is why the Federal government of Australia has been very much
vocal about the different incidents in the country that have been taking place. The scenario that
will be focused in this paper would be the death of the truck driver and the subsequent penalty
that had been imposed in the Canberra Construction Company. It has to be mentioned that the
maintenance the proper safety work cultures have been the main reasons for the betterment of the
organizations (Eeckelaert et al., 2012). It is the main concern of the construction companies. The
death of the truck driver has been the main reason for the whirlwind of the events in the best
ways. The entire labor union had protested against this event. This is why the organization had to
pay the fine for the unwanted death of the worker.
Overview of the event
The safety culture of the construction companies has been in question for over many
years. However, this incident had raised a huge hue and cry. The name of the truck driver was
Michael Booth and his age was 48 (Abc.net.au, 2018). As per the sources, the reason for his
death was believed to be electrocution. The event turned out that he was taking his truck for
some urgent work within the premises of the company. Suddenly the tip of truck had somehow
touched the low slinging power lines on the work site. This caused electrocution instantly and
this had brought about his death. After the thorough investigation it had been found that the
company had violated the safety breaches and this is the reason as the company was being
penalized highly around $1.1 million (Abc.net.au, 2018). The incident had taken place in the

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month of June in the year 2012. The work site was located at Canberra Company Kenoss
Contractors. Some important issues were found in this context. The authorities had found out that
there were no lines of caution on the power lines. No warning signs had been posted in the power
lines (Eeckelaert et al., 2012). Apart from that, there were no flags in the power lines as well. So,
there were basically very few opportunities for the truck driver to identify that he had driven the
truck into the danger zone.
Reaction of the company
After the incident took place, the interrogations and the investigations were being made
by the Government facilities on the safety and risk management of the company. The loop holes
had been identified but it was very shocking that the company had shown no repentance for the
death of their own worker Michael Booth (Abc.net.au, 2018). The company was in the
liquidation and the government took this incident very seriously indeed. The industrial
magistrate Lorraine Walker had been very much worried about the condition of the family of the
dead truck driver and the reaction of the company was not that much expected. Mr. Walker had
also accused Kenoss of having a bad internal corporate culture (Lingard, 2013). The internal
management decisions were not being made properly in the organization as well. This is why the
organization had been on the verge of such mishap for a long time. It was also accused that the
safety officer of the company was the son of the general manager. However, the son did not have
any idea how the safety operations are being carried out. It is only because he had not the proper
qualification to carry out the job properly (Friend & Kohn, 2018).
The safety breaches should be maintained in all the organizations irrespective of the
concerned industries (Friend & Kohn, 2018). The accusations came one after another. This time

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the accusation on the company was the fact that they had altered the attendance record of the
deceased truck driver. The company Kenoss tried their best to halt the procedure of the
investigation in the swift manner. Many safety breaches had been violated. However these
problems would be outlined as follows:-
 The management of the work site was very poor indeed.
 There were no safety signs or flags that would help the workers to identify that they were
already in the danger zone.
 There was a smaller storage compound but it was kept unlocked. There was a great need
to keep the place being locked to protect the property inside it (Xiang et al., 2014).
 The biggest problem in the power lines was the fact that the electricity had not been
turned off during the work at the site. This increased the chances of the electrocution
accidents in a higher margin (Gallagher & Underhill, 2012).
 There was no use the spotters in the work site. These increased the chances of danger as
well (Yoon et al., 2013).
 The above mentioned smaller storage compounds were being used to dump the waste
materials. There were very few opportunities for the proper identification of the risk
compliance. This is the reason that staff working there would not be able to identify the
risks within the work site (Gallagher & Underhill, 2012).
The workplace hazards and safety compliance
The workplace hazards have been discussed in the previous sections. It can be said from
these points that the Kenoss contractors had breached the safety rules mostly. These violations
had been the main reasons (Hickman & Silva, 2018). The regulatory authorities had found out

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that this incident could have been avoided if the proper actions could have been taken in the best
ways. The alterations of the attendance record of Mr. Booth could be conveyed as a sheer breach
of the workplace safety rules. The workplace deaths should be avoided in the best interest of the
workers only (Vivoda & Fulcher, 2017). The industrial magistrate had found out the workplace
safety was completely ignored at the place and this had brought about the unwanted and
unfortunate death of the worker Michael Booth. The reasons for the event of electrocution had
been declared by the magistrate as well. She had mentioned that the electrical wires had been in
the position where they could not be clearly seen because of the vegetation around there. The
power lines were not all made crystal clear to the people who went there (Hickman & Silva,
2018).
This is why it has to be said there should be the tags or flag lines that could have
suggested the existence of the electrical lines. Also she had mentioned that the fateful day of the
accident was a windy day and it needed much attention by the Kenoss contractors to make the
alerts in the region (Guiso, Sapienza & Zingales, 2015). The main culprit behind this incident
was found to be then project manager at the site Munir al Hasani. More to this incident, it could
be said that this incident could have been avoided with just some precautions from the
management (Vivoda & Fulcher, 2017). The charge against the project manager Munir al Hasani
came out that he did not try to make the visitors get the warnings for the risks. The failures of the
project manager had been identified. It was being said in this context that the project manager
did not even make any arrangements for the risk management operations since his main role was
to manage the risks within the organization and the site. As per the implication of the new law,
the charges can be held on an individual officer of the company in this case (Guiso, Sapienza &
Zingales, 2015). The role of the project manager in these cases was simply to identify the risks

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present within the work sites. The industrial magistrate had found out that he did not do his work
as expected. This is why the major faults of this mishap could be attributed to Munir al Hasani.
Thus the magistrate declared her verdict of making the company to go in liquidation and
suggesting the company to be given sentence at a later date. Kenoss was unable to secure the
health and safety of the workers and this was a major breach of the rules (Roper & Fill, 2012).
This inability to ensure the health and safety of the workers had led to the exposure of the truck
driver Michael Booth’s death (Griffith & Howarth, 2014).
Resolving of the issue
After the incident took place, it was time to Safework Australia to give their opinions on
resolving the issue in the best manner (Safeworkaustralia.gov.au, 2018). The National Safety
Council of Australia had come into the investigation of this case as well. They investigated the
spot and concluded after the investigation that the company had completely breached the
workplace safety rules (Pouliakas & Theodossiou, 2013). This was a major offence since they
were not able to take care of the health and safety of the employees. An event like death had
been condemned highly across the country as well. After the hearing in the Industrial Court of
Australia, the company was being fined an amount of $1.1 billion.
As discussed and investigated by the different bodies, it was clear that the Kenoss
contractors had completely breached the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (ACT). This had been
the main reason for the penalty of $1.1 million being imposed on the company
(Safeworkaustralia.gov.au, 2018). The Safework Australia had begun to carry out the risk
assessment procedure and this could be highly effective for the other organizations within the
country. The Safework Australia had also identified that the authority was completely unaware

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of the fact that the health and safety of the workers was at such a risk indeed. They did not even
do the proper health monitoring as well (Pouliakas & Theodossiou, 2013). There was no proper
infrastructure as suggested for the model codes of practice for Safework Australia. They di not
carry out the risk assessments as well. The reduction procedures of the risk were not applied at
all.
Recommendations for the improvement of the situation
In this section, the probable implications of how the risks could have been avoided or
how the further risks could be avoided will be discussed.
 As the contractors are aware of the fact that there are a lot of risks, the work site should
not be used at all (Zanko & Dawson, 2012).
 I would have warned all the workers within the factory settings about the problems and
should warn them about accessing of the site. It is because there might be some potential
risks in the region as well. The accessing points for the work site should be made limited.
A fence should be built around the area where the electrical wires are located (Lehto &
Cook, 2012).
 I should have always looked forward to the proper risk assessments of the situations that
would arise.
 I would order the authorities to turn off the supply of the electricity there.
 When the workers will go on to deliver the good, they must take the spotters with them.
 I should make the proper arrangements that will help the concerned authorities to arrange
for the flags in the working sites.

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 I would arrange for the site inductions so the workers could be made aware about the
risks associated with the site. Then I would go on to inform the workers about the major
disputes regarding the safety of the site.
Conclusion
As discussed in the above section, it can be concluded that the event that turned out at the
Canberra Construction Company at Kenoss has been a very unfortunate event. All users should
be made aware of the risks that are there regarding the risks in the work site. It has been found
that the Kenoss contractors and the project manager Munir al Hasani had been the guilty parties.
This is why the organization had been liquidated and the penalty had been imposed on them. The
workplace safety measures had not been followed at all. These are the reasons why this penalty
of $1.1 million is completely justified. The workplace health and safety standards should be met
completely by the organizations in all the industries.

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References
Abc.net.au. (2018). Canberra construction company fined $1.1m over death of truck driver.
Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-19/construction-company-fined-1-
million-over-workplace-death/6708032
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(2012). Review of workplace innovation and its relation with occupational safety and
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