In a prosecution under s 23(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) alleging failure to maintain a system of work, an employer is entitled to adduce evidence of the employee's competence, training and experience, and of the employer's safe system of work, as relevant to whether the employer did everything reasonably practicable. An isolated failure by an employee to follow an established safe system does not necessarily establish the employer's breach. The prosecution must prove there was a reasonably practicable measure the employer should have taken to maintain the system, even where the employee departed from it on a single occasion.
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