Company enters plea over coolroom death of truck driver

The fruit growing company faces two charges under section 26(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to ensure a workplace under its management or control was safe and without risks to health.

Rendevski Transport truck driver Mario Scapin, who was 50 years old, was found unresponsive in a low-oxygenated coolroom after his vehicle was spotted outside unattended with the engine running on March 15, 2023.

WorkSafe alleges GVIP failed to reduce the risk of serious injury or death by not prohibiting entry to coolrooms operating with a controlled atmosphere and by not having clear and prominent warning signage.

The charges were laid on December 11, 2024, and the company has pleaded not guilty.

The committal hearing heard evidence from seven witnesses, including four Rendevski Transport employees, a WorkSafe informant and investigator, and a Shepparton police detective.

There were also four videos of CCTV footage played to the court that showed the Rendevski Transport workshop at different times on the day Mr Scapin was found.

The court heard Rendevski Transport owned the property at Feiglin Rd, Shepparton, and leased the coolrooms on the site to GVIP.

John and Mary Rendevski, who are sole owners and directors of the transport company, were two of the witnesses who gave evidence.

John told the court the coolrooms were hired out for fruit storage, and GVIP had rented them out exclusively.

He said fruit on the site was the property of GVIP, and employees understood they couldn’t take fruit or enter the coolrooms or the nearby workshop, which was the property of Rendevski Transport.

He told the court Mr Scapin had “no reason to be in there”.

The employee who found Mr Scapin in the coolroom and worked for Rendevski Transport as a yard hand, was emotional as he gave evidence to the court.

He said that period of time was something he’d shut out, but told the court what he could about his movements that day, a possible conversation he’d had with the deceased, and what he believed employees were permitted to do and where they could go on the site.

WorkSafe investigator Mark Hamilton said Rendevski Transport wasn’t charged over the incident because the advice from the WorkSafe legal team was to not charge them.

Magistrate Amina Bhai acknowledged Mr Scapin’s family, who she said showed “grace and dignity” sitting in court listening to the evidence being presented.

GVIP will next face the Melbourne County Court in November for a directions hearing.