The Essendon Football Club has been charged by WorkSafe Victoria for breaching the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act over its handling of the 2012 supplements program.

The club faces two charges, including “failing to provide and maintain for employees a working environment that is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health”.

WorkSafe said it also failed “to provide and maintain for employees a system of work that is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health”.

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The charges follow a comprehensive investigation conducted by WorkSafe.

WorkSafe said it had also completed an investigation in the AFL but said it “could not be established to the requisite standard that the AFL breached the OHS Act”.

The case is now before Victoria’s Magistrates Court and could lead to a maximum fine of $305,000 if the club is found guilty.

It said despite the significant public interest in the case, as it was before the courts it could not make any further comment.

The club said it had accepted the charges.

“Essendon Football Club has been assisting WorkSafe with its investigation and agreed to the charges laid today,” it said in a statement.

“The charges reflect the governance failings of the club at that time, which the club has accepted responsibility [for].”

It said it would be making no further comment on the matter.

In a separate statement, the AFL said it was today “notified by WorkSafe Victoria that it had completed its investigation into alleged breaches of the OHS Act 2004 by the AFL”.

“The AFL notes that this matter is now concluded, with no further action towards to the AFL from WorkSafe Victoria,” the statement said.

Essendon ‘failed in its duty of care’ according to AFL

After more than two years of investigations, the AFL anti-doping tribunal in March found 34 current and former Essendon players not guilty of using the banned supplement thymosin beta-4.

James Hird was suspended for 12 months as part of the punishment for Essendon’s 2012 supplements program.

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) had alleged the players were administered the supplement as part of the club’s fitness regime.

But the tribunal said it was not “comfortably satisfied” the players were given it.

After the initial allegations about the supplements program emerged, the club commissioned an independent investigation in 2013 led by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski.

Mr Switkowski found “a disturbing picture of a pharmacologically experimental environment never adequately controlled or challenged or documented within the club”.

He also found there was a “lack of clarity about who was in charge of the football department”.

Later that year the AFL suspended then-coach James Hird for 12 months and fined the club $2 million over its handling of the program.

The AFL Commission found Essendon had failed in its duty of care towards the players by delivering an “experimental, inappropriate, and inadequately vetted” supplements program.

He also said that Essendon was unaware of whether the club administered players with prohibited substances.

WADA appeal to be heard later this month

The club and players have consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to the program.

The AFL Players Association (AFLPA) welcomed the tribunal’s decision at the time but criticised the Bombers for the handling of the program.

“This decision does not absolve the Essendon Football Club of blame. Players were placed in an unacceptable position that put their health and careers at risk – for over two years these players’ lives have been hijacked by this,” AFLPA chief Paul Marsh said in March.

The man at the centre of the controversial program, sports scientist Stephen Dank was handed a lifetime ban by the AFL tribunal in June.

But the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has since appealed the tribunal’s decision.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will hold a week-long hearing starting in Sydney on November 16.