The Victorian Workcover Authority charged D&R Henderson last year following the death of 24-year-old worker Rasta Kemp.

Mr Kemp, who on May 30, 2019, was pulling timber from belts on a moulding machine and stacking them, was dragged into the machine when his clothing became entangled.

The matter returned before Wangaratta Magistrates' Court today, with the potential elevation of the case to the County Court being subject to legal argument.

Two of four charges originally laid relating to the alleged failure to provide and maintain a safe work environment will be progressing.

Jason Gullaci, speaking on behalf of the prosecution, read out an agreed statement of facts between the parties.

Mr Gullaci said improvement notices were issued by WorkSafe investigators on the day of the incident.

"He (the inspector) obtained CCTV footage of the incident and noted that before Kemp's clothing became caught ... it appeared that he was attempting to realign a belt," he said.

"(The inspector) also obtained witness statements from several workers with respect to the system of work for belt realignment on the moulding machines.

"Several workers described realigning the belts on the rollers whilst the belts were running.

"Others described the task being undertaken when the machine was off.

"The evidence indicates a lack of a coherent system of work.

"There is a lack of consistency as to where an operator should stand when removing timber from the belt."

An engineer for WorkSafe identified "a cover or sleeve over the rotating shaft and its components" was a "reasonably practicable measure that could have been installed by D&R Henderson".

"WorkSafe inspectors attended the workplace on a number of occasions between 2000 and 2015; both visits identified risks which, although not exactly the same as that which eventuated on the 30th of May, 2018, established D&R Henderson had knowledge of similar hazards," Mr Gullaci said.

"D&R Henderson has two prior convictions for breaching the occupational health and safety legislation in New South Wales; one from 2001 and one from 2002.

"On each occasion (they) received a fine of $15,000, based on the records that we have."

Defence lawyer Robert Taylor, who is seeking for the case to progress in the Magistrates' Court, said those prior convictions "carried no weight at all".

"It would be quite a different state of affairs if they were penalties for guarding and even more so if they were penalties for guarding at the Benalla site," he said.

"We can work that much out from the fact they were in the NSW Industrial Court; they're not matters that arose in Victoria.

"We have been unable through our clients to establish any corporate memory of what those were.

"We submit D&R Henderson is a good corporate citizen.

"There was in place a process to manage the activity in the context of a health and safety system. And in our submission, this is not a case ... of willful neglect or recklessness.

"The matter ... should be dealt with in Your Honour's court."

Mr Taylor indicated his client's intention to plead guilty to the revised charges.

"The offences that we admit are towards the lower end of seriousness, and we say that acknowledging with great regret the death of Mr. Kemp," he said.

"We accept that there is a plain objective knowledge of the need to guard (machinery).

"We don't dispute that; there is a great deal of guarding and there was a great deal of guarding at the Benalla site at the time of this event.

"We don't understand our learned friends to be saying that this particular risk, that is of this deck, was known and ignored."

Mr Taylor argued that the case of D&R Henderson should join the co-accused, labour hire company Recruitment Select, in being heard in the Magistrates' Court.

"There was a fine without conviction of $50,000 (for the co-accused)," he said.

"The facts giving rise to the statement of agreed facts are in essence the same as in Recruitment Select.

"While it's often said that labour hire firms are less culpable than host employers, in our submission, that factor on its own does not take this case out of the range of cases that should be dealt with by Your Honour's court," he said.

"The maximum penalty for each of the two offences if Your Honour was to grant jurisdiction is ... in round figures, $800,000."

Mr Gullaci disputed that the culpability for D&R Henderson was similar to the labour hire company and raised the prior breaches in NSW, which would have been "lower-end".

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"You've got an experienced corporate entity that is on the ground doing this work, where workers have these risks because of the use of machinery that can be dangerous," he said.

"What came out from the statements that were taken from investigators was that there was two different practices that had developed.

"It encapsulates a failure to properly guard and a failure to have a consistent system of work."

The case will be returning at Shepparton Magistrate's Court on March 7 for the delivery of a decision as to which court it will proceed in.