Courts have yet to rule on ‘industrial manslaughter’ as Washington mining fatalities rise

A Category 1 offense conviction is punishable by up to five years in prison and fines of $680,000 for individuals and $3.5 million for businesses.

Whittle, who has led the WA’s top union organization for two years, said he hoped the risk of greater penalties would make workplaces safer and bring justice to workers and families of injured or dead workers. Told.

Unfortunately, in just three days in early October, two people lost their lives in accidents at separate WA gold mines.

A worker died in an accident at the Hamlet Underground Mine in St. Ives, Gold Fields near Cambarda, and a man died at the Carlawinda Gold Mine at Capricorn Metals near Newman in the Pilbara.

Of the 13 mining fatalities over the past five years, three cases in 2018 were successfully prosecuted, and two deaths in 2019 went to court, according to the regulator, the Ministry of Mining Industries, Regulation and Safety. and seven deaths since 2020 are under investigation.

Indus Mining Services, a contactor for mineral sands producer Iluka, fined 34-year-old surveyor Glenn Morton $60,000 in 2020 after suffering a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting while working alone in 2018. was sentenced

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A court fined Collie miner Griffin Cole $210,000 in 2020 after a worker died in 2018 after being crushed by a hydraulic ladder that should have been quarantined.

Iron mining giant Rio Tinto was fined $75,000 in June 2022 after a truck driver died in a 2020 crash after speeding downhill while fully loaded.

WorkSafe Commissioner Darren Kavanagh said he could not comment on the remaining cases pending investigation or in court.

Christina Folley, Acting Mine Chief Inspector for WorkSafe, said regulators are committed to working with industry to reduce serious accidents and support positive cultural change.

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