Engineering company in Morwell and director front court for serious health and safety breaches

A Gippsland engineering company and its director have landed in hot water after an apprentice copped a severe knock to the head.

Dennis Jones Engineering director Dennis Jones after he and his company were fined in the County Court for a workplace incident.

An engineering company and its director have been fined more than $2m after an apprentice suffered a traumatic brain injury when a wobbly pipe struck him in the head.

Dennis Jones Engineering and director Dennis Jones, 56, appeared in the County Court for sentencing on Thursday after earlier pleading guilty to charges laid by WorkSafe.

They include a single charge each of recklessly engaging in conduct that placed the apprentice in danger of serious injury and a single charge of failing to provide or maintain a safe system of work, totalling two charges each.

The company was fined $2.1m and Jones $140,000 and he also had a Community Corrections Order for five years imposed on him. In addition, Jones was ordered to perform 600 hours of unpaid community work over the next five years.

Dennis Jones Engineering is a specialised engineering supplier workshop located in Morwell and has been operating since 1993.

The apprentice Byron Foley was holding a plastic sleeve to steady a rotating length of steel pipe that was being threaded in a lathe when the pipe wobbled and bent, striking him in the head on October 13, 2021.

The lengths of pipe being threaded protruded from the rear spindle of the lathe. WorkSafe argued Jones and his company failed to eliminate or reduce the risk by not ensuring that the

external covers on the rear spindle were fixed in place to prevent lengths of pipe that protruded from the rear spindle from being threaded using the lathe.

Dennis Jones Engineering Pty Ltd and director Dennis Jones have been fined more than $2m for a serious workplace injury to an apprentice.

A fixed steady was not used to support lengths of pipe that protruded from the rear

spindle of the lathe and an exclusion zone was not established restricting access to

the danger area around the length of pipe, WorkSafe submitted in court.

Mr Foley attended the sentencing with his mother and grandfather.

In his victim impact statement he read out during a previous court sitting, Mr Foley described how much the workplace accident had taken from his life.

“I watch my friends every single day live the life I want to be living. My life now revolves around my medical issues, constant appointments, fear and stress.”

He has difficulties walking and balancing himself and has had skull reconstruction with a titanium plate inserted.

Judge Kate Hawkins said the company’s culpability was “very high” because the risk posed by a protruding pipe was well known in the machine industry.

Under the Health and Safety Act, she said the charge of recklessly endangering persons at workplaces was the second highest after the offence of workplace manslaughter.

“Despite knowing the risk, the company nonetheless required Mr Foley to perform that task in disregard to whether or not the consequence arose.

“Mr Jones, as the company director, was explicitly aware that protruding pipes needed to be supported and the company was aware of an incident in 2012 where a protruding bar had snapped or sheared off.”

Jones grew up in Burnsdale and moved to Morwell in 1988. He’s an active member of the Gippsland Go Kart Club. He unreservedly apologised, both personally and on behalf of his company, to Mr Foley’s family for the accident.