Fall leaves worker in a wheelchair and small business fined

A magistrate has given a small building company six years to pay a fine imposed on it after a worker became a paraplegic as a result of a four-metre fall. The incident occurred at Keysborough in June 2010.

The monthly payment of $850 to meet the $60,000 fine would be a constant reminder to renovation firm Mayneline of the need to ensure safety standards were maintained, said General Manager of Operations Lisa Sturzenegger, WorkSafe Victoria.

“For a small business this is a significant, and not uncommon, level of fine for a safety incident.

“Ensuring safety issues are understood and dealt with prevents devastating and life-changing incidents and reduces the risk of a business’s viability being undermined.”

Magistrate Leslie Fleming said it was important that general deterrence was achieved, but that she would not impose a penalty that would be “crushing” for the small business, nor one that would threaten its ongoing viability.

The Kilsyth-based company pleaded guilty to breaching sections 21(1) and 22(2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 in that it failed to provide a safe working environment by failing to provide a safe system of work for installing roof trusses. The company was convicted, fined $60,000 and ordered to pay court costs of $2894.52.

The court was told Mayneline’s workers were replacing the burnt-out roof of the Keysborough house when it began to rain, causing them to rush to make the house weatherproof.

The injured man’s supervisor told WorkSafe investigators that he had watched the man climb onto the frame of the house immediately before he fell. Although the supervisor knew it was risky, he did not tell the man to come down immediately, thinking he was capable of standing there and lifting one truss.

It was at this point that the 27-year-old man lost his grip on the truss, slipped off the wet timber on which he was standing, and fell four metres down an unprotected stairwell void.

As a result of the fall, he suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs, a fractured wrist, serious laceration to the head and three broken vertebrae. Due to his back injury, he is unlikely to walk again.

Magistrate Fleming said the man was a conscientious worker who had kept working after treading on a nail earlier in the day. She said unsafe practices were allowed to continue at the worksite unchecked because there was time pressure to ‘get the job done’.

Counsel for the company, Carmen Currie, said the firm had a previous good safety record, was remorseful, had cooperated fully with WorkSafe’s investigation and had since taken steps to improve its OHS management. Fleming said that if the company had not pleaded guilty, she would have fined it an additional $40,000.