Roofing company gets $700K in fines over working at height offences
A roofing company has been convicted and fined after repeatedly putting workers at risk of falls on four residential construction sites in Melbourne. On 12 February, the company was found guilty of nine offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations and fined a total of $700,000.
For failing to use passive fall prevention devices and fall protection, and for failing to have a safe work method statement (SWMS) across three sites in Fraser Rise and Clyde North, the company was sentenced ex parte to an aggregate fine of $350,000 in the Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court.
For offences at a Mickleham construction site for failing to have a safe system for working at height and failing to perform high risk construction work in line with a SWMS, the court also imposed an additional aggregate fine of $350,000. For the two matters, the company was also ordered to pay costs totalling $12,965.
The company was engaged to install steel roofing at three sites in Fraser Rise and Clyde North. In April 2023, following a complaint about lack of fall protection, a WorkSafe Victoria inspector visited the Fraser Rise construction site and saw a worker on the roof without perimeter guard railing or safety harnesses in place. Despite working at heights of 2.9 and 3.2 metres, the worker said no SWMS had been prepared.
An inspector responding to another complaint later that month, observing two workers at a Clyde North construction site on a roof without a fall prevention system or perimeter guard railing. The inspector issued an improvement notice with an interim direction requiring the company to stop roofing works until the company provided a safe system of work. Yet, the inspector again saw two workers installing roof sheets without any fall protection the following day — including one who was working the day before.
A WorkSafe Victoria inspector observed two workers on another construction site in Clyde North the same month, installing roof sheets on townhouses without fall prevention equipment. All were working at a height of more than two metres, and a SWMS was not present at the workplace.
A WorkSafe Victoria inspector responding to a complaint about a townhouse construction site in Mickleham in July 2024 then saw two workers on the lower roof installing roof battens without fall protection in place. Both workers were at risk of falling three metres and no SWMS was available.
It was reasonably practicable, the court heard, for the company to have implemented fall protection measures such has handrails, perimeter guardrails, harnesses or scaffolding, as well having a SWMS where appropriate and performing high risk construction work in accordance with it.
“One working at height offence is unacceptable. Nine offences — especially after multiple WorkSafe interactions and improvement notices — show a disturbing disregard for workers’ lives,” WorkSafe Victoria Chief Health and Safety Officer Sam Jenkin said.
“We won’t wait for a worker to fall before taking strong enforcement action — especially when duty holders flout safety obligations even after multiple warnings.”
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