A GERALDTON lobster processing company has been fined $60,000 for failing to provide a hazard-free workplace after an employee died in a fall in 2005.

Geraldton Fisherman's Co-operative Ltd was fined in the Geraldton Magistrates Court today after pleading guilty to failing to provide a safe working environment and causing the death of an employee.

In December 2005, an employee truck driver was helping load a truck with pallets of live lobsters at Geraldton Fisherman's Wharf.

The driver asked another employee to lift him to the back of the truck on the forklift tines - a common practice at the workplace at the time - so he could place the pallet trolley on the truck and it be used again when the load reached its destination.

The driver stood on the forklift tines with the pallet trolley, and the other employee drove the forklift to the truck, lifted the tines until they were about 5cm over the edge of the truck and lowered the tines onto the back of the truck.

But in moving the pallet trolley, the truck driver fell from the tines of the forklift, striking his head on the bitumen. He died in hospital 10 days later.

Today, WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said the case demonstrated why riding on the tines of forklifts was prohibited.

``The forklifts used by Geraldton Fisherman's Co-operative each had a sticker at eye level indicating that people were not to be lifted on the tines,'' Ms Lyhne said.

``Despite this, it was common practice at this workplace for people to be lifted to the backs of trucks on pallets on forklift tines,'' she said.

``It was up to the employer to provide appropriate training and supervision and have safe work practices in place to ensure that the instructions provided by the forklift manufacturer were followed and that warning stickers were heeded.

``Since this incident, the employer has made several changes to make the workplace safer – including prohibiting the lifting of people on forklift tines - but all too late for the unfortunate worker who lost his life.''