A retail tyre outlet and its director have been fined a total of $70,000 plus $1,071 in costs for failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment.

The employer had ignored two prohibition notices, issued by WorkSafe WA, which banned workers from standing on forklift tines to access tyres stacked up to 3.7 metres above the ground.

The director and manager of the company did not display the notice as required, but had filed it away and failed to tell his employees about it.

“[The director] not only chose to ignore the direction he had been given, but played an active role in directing employees to perform work unsafely,” WorkSafe WA Commissioner Darren Kavanagh said.

“Despite his actual knowledge of the fall hazard and WorkSafe expressly prohibiting the unsafe system of work, [the director] continued requiring the hazardous work to be done.

“It’s fortunate that no worker had a fall in this workplace and good to know that WorkSafe’s intervention at the workplace may have prevented a death or serious injury.”