'Workplaces aren't playgrounds': WorkSafe
Two factory storemen who took photos of themselves planking on the job and then posted them on the internet have each been fined $1,500.
Stewart Kift, 49, and Cameron Denbesten, 27, were sacked after they photographed themselves planking across forklift tynes and from the top of a spray booth at their workplace in Bayswater.
The online epidemic involves lying flat and face-down on top of an object while being photographed.
On May 16, at the height of the craze, Denbesten was caught at Ebara Pumps planking across forklift tynes, four metres above ground.
He then used the forklift to get his colleague, Kift, a qualified workplace safety supervisor, to the top of a spray booth, to snap him planking.
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WorkSafe prosecuted the men under the Occupational Health and Safety act, after they were tipped off when the photos appeared on Facebook.
Both lost their jobs, and today, in an Australian first, each copped $1,500 after pleading guilty to breaching occupational health and safety laws.
Magistrate Max Cashmore said if it had not been for the pair's excellent character references and otherwise impeccable work record, he would have fined them $2,500 dollars, and recorded a conviction.
Outside court, prosecutor for WorkSafe Patrick McQuillen said the penalties should send a strong warning message to the community that 'a workplace is not a playground'.
"Equipment such as fork lifts aren't toys to be played with," he said.
"The risks involved in the type of behaviour that was the subject of this case are really serious.
"These men could have fallen, broken heads, bones or legs and worse."
