A building company in Victoria was convicted and fined $70,000, and ordered to pay $5577 in costs, after a worker received serious injuries in a fall from a two-storey residential construction site in Warrnambool.
The Victorian based construction business was found guilty of two contraventions of the OHS Act for failing to ensure it provided, as far as reasonably practicable, a workplace that was safe and without risk to health.
Earlier this month the Warrnambool Magistrates’ Court heard that two workers were installing solar panels on the roof of the property in January 2017 when one fell five metres onto the front lawn.
The worker received broken ribs and neck injuries.
A WorkSafe investigation found there was no evidence of fall protection being used for work within two metres of the roof edge, and no Safe Work Method Statement was in place for the high risk work.
The court ruling follows the deaths of two workers from falls at separate residential construction sites in August.
A man in his 30s died when he fell into a deep trench at a housing estate at Wallan on August 16, and a man in his 40s died in hospital after falling through a stair void at a housing construction site at Rosebud on August 18.
To prevent falls employers can:
Eliminate the risk by doing all or some of the work on the ground or from a solid construction.
Use fall prevention devices such as scaffolds, perimeter screens, guardrails, elevated work platforms or safety mesh.
Use travel-restraint systems, industrial rope-access systems, catch platforms and fall arrest harness systems.
Use suitable equipment for working at height. A step platform with handrails provides a larger, more stable surface than a ladder.
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