Oakey Beef Exports found guilty of failing health and safety duty

Following a workplace shooting accident, a Queensland abattoir has been found guilty of violating their health and safety duty.

Workers in Oakey Beef Exports boning and packing room. There are more than 300 people employed within this section of the business.

A Queensland abattoir may face a hefty fine after it was found to have endangered workers by failing its health and safety duty.

Representatives of Oakey Beef Exports learned their company’s fate after pleading not guilty, on behalf of the entity, to failing to comply with their health and safety duty (category 2) in December last year.

At the 2024 hearing in the Toowoomba Magistrates Court, the Office of Workplace Health and Safety claimed the abattoir failed to maintain its healthy and safety duty, exposing workers to serious injury and death.

The legal battle was triggered after maintenance worker Mark Bashford accidentally shot himself in the abdomen with a loaded captive bolt gun meant to incapacitate cattle.

Mr Bashford reported losing a chunk of his liver to the injury and told the court he remained in the care of doctors for several days.

Over the course of the hearing, the court heard safety protocols specified guns should be delivered to the maintenance room unloaded, despite witness testimonies guns had been delivered loaded on several occasions.

A long-serving maintenance team manager told the court kill floor workers would distribute ten caps for the guns at the beginning of the day which were returned to the supervisor at the end of the day; however, he conceded there were no specific measures in the safety procedures to account for all ten caps at the end of the day nor any direction to check the guns after they had been unloaded.

Oakey Beef Exports defence team argued safety operation procedures included multiple warnings to uncock the weapons before handling and to check they were unloaded before cleaning, while also specifying the guns should be unloaded when they are transported.

Following Mr Bashford’s injury, witnesses testified procedures were updated so now guns came to the maintenance room disarmed in two parts and carried within a container.

Magistrate Michelle Dooley handed down her decision just under two months after parties made their concluding statements.

Ms Dooley ruled there was a clear failure of health and safety duties, declaring Oakey Beef Exports guilty of the offence.

“In light of all the evidence put forward during the course of this hearing I’m satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that at the time of the incident the guns were delivered to the maintenance workshop cocked, loaded – therefore armed – and in one piece, that is assembled,” she said.

“I’m further satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant could have eliminated the risk if they had implemented the controls set out (by Workplace Health and Safety prosecutors).”

The parties requested a short adjournment before sentencing could take place to ensure all material was presented to the court.

Representatives for Oakey Beef Exports will return to court for sentencing on April 15, 2025.