$55K fine after work experience skylight fall results in paraplegia

After a person on work experience fell more than 3.5 metres through a skylight, sustaining serious injuries resulting in paraplegia, a roofing company has been convicted and fined $55,000 — and ordered to pay $5888 in costs.

The incident occurred in February 2024; the company had been engaged to complete roofing works at a building that had multiple domed skylights and a person on paid work experience with a subcontractor was carrying a removed roofing sheet to the side of the roof when he fell through a skylight.

While several Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS) outlining the risks of the roofing works and associated control measures had been prepared, there were no fall protection measures in place, a WorkSafe Victoria investigation found.

It was reasonably practicable, the court heard, for the company to reduce the risk of serious injury or death by securely covering the skylights or installing guardrails or barriers and signs around them.

After earlier pleading guilty to failing to ensure that a workplace under its management or control was safe and without risks to health, the company was sentenced in the Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on 6 May.

“Time and time again we see duty holders fail to take simple, easily understood precautions to address the serious risks of a fall from heights,” WorkSafe Victoria Chief Health and Safety Officer Sam Jenkin said.

“Sadly, this failure has left an individual with devastating injuries that could and should have been prevented.”

In December 2025, the subcontracted sole trader who engaged the injured person was separately fined $50,000 without conviction in relation to the incident.

WorkSafe Victoria advised that to prevent falls from height duty holders should implement the highest possible measures from the five levels in the hierarchy of controls:

• Level 1 — eliminate the risk by, where practicable, doing all or some of the work on the ground or from a solid construction.
• Level 2 — use a passive fall prevention device such as scaffolds, perimeter screens, guardrails, safety mesh or elevating work platforms.
• Level 3 — use a positioning system, such as a travel-restraint system, to ensure employees work within a safe area.
• Level 4 — use a fall arrest system, such as a harness, catch platform or safety nets, to limit the risk of injuries in the event of a fall.
• Level 5 — use a fixed or portable ladder, or implement administrative controls.
   

Practical advice and resources to help prevent falls in their workplaces are also available to eligible employers through WorkSafe Victoria’s free online falls basics workshops.

Image credit: iStock.com/TW Farlow. Stock image used is for illustrative purposes only.