ZINIFEX Port Pirie, the previous operator of the Port Pirie metal smelter has been found guilty of breaking workplace safety laws after a worker was killed at the facility in 2004.
Zinifex was prosecuted by SafeWork SA for the death of 45-year-old employee Greg Sleep in October 2004.
The worker was struck and fatally injured by a front-end loader as he worked the night shift in the Co-Treatment Shed.
According to the prosecution, visibility in the shed was poor due to dust and low lighting. His body was only found in morning by a colleague after he was noticed to be missing for more than four hours.
The company has since been renamed to Nyrstar, and its contest of the charge was unsuccessful.
The court found the company had breached the Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act 1986, in that it failed to maintain a safe working environment, through a number of failings in its systems of work.
The magistrate found the Shed had been a dangerous working environment, there were insufficient measures to separate workers from machinery, and the company had failed to prevent the employees from entering while the loader was operating in the shed.
Although there were safety protocols in place, the courts found they were insufficient.
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