css employee dived into tank intoxicated

From today's financial review on page 12

I'll type it out...

"...It's a lesson Clean Seas Tuna, founded by former BRW rich lister Hagen Stehr, recently found out in a textbook human resources disaster.

In April this year, Clean Seas was fined $27,387 in the South Australian Industrial Relations Court for a breach of duty of care when an employee, affected by alcohol from a night of drinking with his manager, dived into a tuna cage with no safety gear and had to be rescued and subsequently hospitalised.

The case stemmed from an evening in November 2007 when an employee, Chris Norman, went out drinking with his manager, Randel Elson. Next morning, Elson dropped a still intoxicated Norman at the Clean Seas Aquaculture fishery in South Australia's Arno Bay near Port Lincoln.

Against his colleagues' advice Norman insisted on performing his duties and dove into the water drunk to check fish cages for dead fish.

He passed out, was pulled from the water, given cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and an oxygen mask and was taken to hospital, but not before trying to run into the ocean while being treated by paramedics on the shore.

Worksafe South Australia successfully prosecuted Norman's employer for breach of duty of care..."


Unsinkable asks... 'Does this sound like a professionally run company?'