A Tasmanian man who had his leg amputated after in a brick factory accident has lost a court appeal for workers compensation.
Anthony Henry Young, of Glenorchy, had his amputated on site after he was sucked into a brick crusher at the K & D Brickworks factory at New Town in September 2010, according to the Mercury.
The 28-year-old had worked at the plant for two years but was hired and paid by Tasmanian Contracting Services (TCS), meaning he was not eligible for workers compensation, according to an ABC News report.
The Full Court of Appeal dismissed Young’s appeal against the Supreme Court of Tasmania's decision on the grounds that Young was an independent contractor and not a worker within the meaning of the Act.
The court found that: “The appellant had no autonomy as to how he performed his work, but had to work in accordance with instructions given by, and supervision provided by, others. This counts for little because the instructions and supervision came not from TCS, but from its client [K & D Brickworks]."
K & D Brickworks was fined $60,000 over the incident.
It has since shut down the factory.
A writ for damages for personal injuries lodged by Young against the company is yet to be determined.
Image: a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Nelson Minar’s Flickr photo stream.
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