Vale Rohullah
Death of delivery driver exposes unsafe conditions in Victorian transport industry
By Owen
On 17 August 2022 Rohullah Khashee had completed a night’s work making deliveries of baked goods when he fell asleep at the wheel and was killed. He was sub contracted to Onkar and asked to repeatedly perform the ‘Albury run’, the hardest delivery schedule at the workplace. Rohullah had undertaken the Albury Run every day between 1 July 2022 and 17 August. He was only 27.
While driving the Albury run, he was expected to start at between approximately 11 pm and 1:30am and drive 796 kilometres in total with an estimated driving time of approximately 10 hours and 54 minutes excluding his commute to and from home, the drive to collect his load, and the drive to his first delivery location.
His schedule did not allow time for fatigue breaks, nor “sufficient time to sleep, rest and recover in order to return fit for work”. Mr Madhav a former driver at Onkar was quoted to state: “the Albury Run would take between 14 to 16 hours, included 25 deliveries, and if he took a break, he would be late for deliveries.”
Fatigue was most certainly a factor in Rohullah’s accident. At trial his employer was penalised for failing to provide or maintain a system of work in relation to Onkar’s shift schedule and Onkar failed to provide the necessary information, instruction and training in relation to fatigue.
Despite his herculean work schedule that pushed him past his limit, Rohullah’s contract provided that “he was to be paid a daily minimum fee of $350” with which he supported his family at home in Afghanistan. Across his 14 hour shift, this worked out to ~$25 per hour on his ABN – a pittance.
We have seen time and time again how migrant workers are exploited and mistreated by the bosses as they are usually in a precarious situation where they feel that they cannot say no. This needs to stop. Rohullah died at work as his employer didn’t want to split the delivery schedule and have to pay another driver. His death was completely preventable.
Rohullah’s case is a call for solidarity between native-born and migrant workers to counter the bosses offensive on wages and conditions. This building of workers power requires industrial unionism against craft unionism, rank-and-file democracy against trade union bureaucracy, and fight for workers’ power inside and outside the unions - not for positions in the halls of bureaucratic privilege.
Vale Rohullah.