On 23 July 2026, SafeWork SA laid charges against Nylastex Tooling Pty Ltd, Nylastex Holdings Pty Ltd and two of their directors under section 30A of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA) (Act) for industrial manslaughter.
This is the first industrial manslaughter prosecution in South Australia and marks a significant milestone in the State's work health and safety enforcement regime.
A project manager has also been charged with the Category 1 offence of gross negligence or reckless conduct under section 31 of the Act.
SafeWork SA alleges that, on 24 July 2024, a 28-year-old worker was fatally struck by a metal object ejected from a milling machine while working at the companies' Edwardstown manufacturing facility.
It is further alleged that the machine's interlock guarding switch, which was designed to prevent this type of incident, had been disabled or bypassed. According to the prosecution, an external technician had raised safety concerns about the guarding switch just two days before the fatal incident.
The prosecution alleges that the companies and their directors breached their health and safety duties by engaging in conduct that amounted to gross negligence or recklessness, resulting in the worker's death.
As these proceedings are before the courts, the allegations have not been determined.
Section 30A(1) of the Act provides that a person commits industrial manslaughter if:
The concepts of gross negligence and recklessness establish a high threshold for criminal liability in work health and safety prosecutions.
Courts have held that gross negligence requires:
Recklessness, by contrast, involves conscious risk-taking. It requires that the defendant foresaw, that their conduct exposed another person to the risk of death or serious injury, yet proceeded regardless.
In this case, it can be expected that SafeWork SA will seek to establish either that the defendants failed to turn their minds to an obvious and significant risk and took insufficient steps to eliminate or minimise it, or that they were aware of the risk and nevertheless permitted the work to continue.
The meaning of gross negligence and recklessness has been considered in the recent New South Wales prosecutions in SafeWork NSW v Pendle Ham and Bacon Pty Ltd. To understand how the courts have approached these concepts, you can access Jackson McDonald's webinar on the case here.
If convicted, the two corporate defendants face maximum penalties of $18 million.
The two directors each face a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment.
Separately, the project manager faces a maximum penalty of $300,000 and/or five years' imprisonment for the alleged Category 1 offence.
The incident occurred only weeks after South Australia's industrial manslaughter provisions came into force, making this an important test case for the State's new offence.
It demonstrates that SafeWork SA is prepared to pursue not only corporate entities, but also directors and other individuals where it considers the statutory threshold has been met.
For employers and officers, the prosecution serves as a reminder that critical safety controls must be properly maintained and that identified hazards must be addressed promptly.
As this matter progresses through the courts, it is likely to provide valuable guidance on how industrial manslaughter provisions in work health and safety legislation will be interpreted and applied in practice.
This article was written by, Michael Cooper, Lawyer | Corporate Commercial.