I asked my employee to carry out work on a forklift. The employee notified me that the forklift had a broken reverse beeper and refused to carry out the task until the issue was repaired. Other than the beeper the forklift still works fine. Does he have the right to refuse to carry out my work instructions?
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Answer by Shamaila Khan, Kingsville 3012 VIC
- A worker may cease or refuse to carry out work if he or she holds a reasonable concern that the work would expose them or others to a serious risk to health and safety.
- The worker’s entitlements are preserved for any period in which work is ceased provided the worker remains available to carry out suitable alternative duties.
- In this particular scenario whether the worker is within his rights to stop work will depend on the circumstances:
- operating a forklift is a high risk activity requiring a licence that suggests that a greater degree of care is needed when operating the forklift to ensure it does not pose any immediate or imminent threats to health or safety;
- the purpose of the reverse beeper is to ensure people in the vicinity of the forklift are warned that a forklift is reversing and that the driver may not be able to see them;
- in a busy warehousing environment this may be concerning enough to cause a worker to stop work; and
- if the work was being carried out in an isolated place or at a time where no other workers were working in the vicinity of the forklift then the risk of harm could possibly be lowered sufficiently to compromise the workers’ refusal to work.
- On balance it would appear that the worker is entitled to cease using the forklift until the reverse beeper is fixed.