Two companies have appeared in a Canberra court on charges relating to a workplace accident in which a man was fatally pinned to a hopper behind the Evatt shops in 2009.
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Geoffrey William ''Blackfella'' Gowan died on his 57th birthday while working with SITA Environmental Solutions.
Mr Gowan had been working with SITA for only a week.
An inquest into his death was held by Coroner Peter Dingwall in 2012, but it was put on hold after the coroner referred the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions, believing there were reasonable grounds to think an offence had been committed.
Two companies - the employer SITA Australia Pty Ltd and labour hire company Adecco Industrial Pty Ltd - are now in court for failing to comply with safety duties.
The case came before Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker, who is also the ACT's new industrial magistrate, on Monday morning.
The prosecution indicated it might be close to agreeing to the facts and receiving pleas from both companies, and asked for an adjournment.
They asked that the matter next be set down for a special hearing, noting the case was of a complex nature and involved a death.
Ms Walker set down the matter for early April before the newly created Industrial Magistrates Court, and ordered that pleas and the agreed facts of the case be submitted in writing by early next month.
