Forklift Accident is Victoria’s First Conviction for Industrial Manslaughter

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On 19 February 2024, LH Holding Management Pty Ltd, trading as Universal Stone and Marble, was sentenced in the Victorian Supreme Court  after pleading guilty to a single charge of engaging in negligent conduct that constituted a breach of a duty owed to another person and caused their death.

The company was convicted and fined $1.3 million.

LH Holding Management’s sole director Laith Hanna, 46, was also convicted and placed on a two-year Community Corrections Order to complete 200 hours of unpaid community work and a course in forklift operation after pleading guilty to a single charge under section 144(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for being an officer of a company that committed workplace manslaughter, a contravention solely attributable to his failure to take reasonable care.

The company and Hanna were also ordered to pay $120,000 in compensation to the worker’s family for pain and suffering.

In October 2021, a 25-year-old sub-contractor died after a forklift being operated by Hanna with a raised load on a sloping driveway tipped over and landed on top of him.

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New Victoria Forklift Safety Guidebook

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On 22 May 2025 WorkSafe Victoria  released a new Forklift Safety Guidebook.

In their media release WorkSafe Victoria noted:

The newly-published guidance provides practical advice to employers on the safe use and maintenance of forklifts and highlights the need to separate forklifts from people on the ground.

WorkSafe data shows on average more than one worker every week in Victoria is seriously injured after being struck by forklifts or falling forklift loads.

The guidance outlines ways to reduce the risk by ensuring traffic management systems, such as physical barriers, exclusion zones and signage are in place.

Sadly, eight people have been killed in forklift-related workplace incidents since 2019, including three pedestrians working near forklifts. Pedestrians also accounted for 65 of the 157 accepted claims last year where the cause of injury was a forklift incident.

The guidance also encourages employers to consider retrofitting relatively low-cost safety technology such as sequential seatbelt interlocks, which prevents the forklift being started without a seatbelt in place, and proximity devices that detect pedestrians and automatically power mobile plant down to low speed.

The full media release is available here

The PDF version of the Guidebook is available directly from WorkSafe Victoria  here or from the AFITA website in the State and Territory Resources section, here.