Alisa Gaye Bull files lawsuit against Omya Australia, Adecco Industrial

A quarry worker is suing a mine operator and her employer for $1.271 million for a lower back injury she suffered while operating a forklift at a Central Queensland mine.

A quarry worker is suing a mine operator and her employer for $1.271 million for a lower back injury she says she suffered while operating a forklift at a Central Queensland mine.

Alisa Gaye Bull, 45, has filed a lawsuit totalling $1,271,762 in the Rockhampton Supreme Court against mine owner Omya Australia and her employer at the time, Adecco Industrial.

Ms Bull claimed she was injured between June 3-6, 2020 while operating a forklift to transport bags of calcium carbonate, weighing one tonne, to a shed at Omya’s Bajool mine on South Ulam Road.

She claimed that to get into the shed, she was required to drive the forklift up a “very steep gradient ramp” and was “significantly jolted” in the cabin of the forklift.

She further claimed that, in order to load pallets onto trucks, the forklift was required to travel across concrete in front of the shed that had potholes and defects in it and that doing so also jolted her in the cabin of the forklift.

According to the court documents, the forklift was a “solid tyre forklift” that was not suitable for traversing the ramp or travelling through the potholes or defects in the concrete and did not have a seat that was able to absorb the “significant jolts”.

Ms Bull claimed she suffered a lower back injury from the jolting and a secondary psychological injury.

She claimed both Omya Australia and Adecco Industrial failed to carry out a safe place of work and that the risk of injury was foreseeable and not insignificant.

She further claimed that Omya Australia failed to provide her with an appropriate access ramp to the shed, an appropriate forklift that was able to travel over the ramp and modified seating to the forklift that would not jolt and pose an “unacceptable risk of injury”.

Ms Bull claimed she had not returned to work post-accident and was unlikely to ever return to work in any capacity.

A final offer has been submitted. A defence has not been filed.

Queensland Compensation Lawyers, who are representing Ms Bull, Omya Australia and Adecco Industrial were all contacted for comment but did not respond by time of publication.