WorkSafe

A WorkSafe proactive inspection program has found that the owners of tower cranes have limited knowledge and understanding of the correct procedures for major inspections of tower cranes.

The inspection program was conducted throughout the 2019/20 financial year, looking at safety issues relating to tower cranes in service at WA construction sites in both metropolitan and regional areas.

WorkSafe WA Director Sally North said today the aim of the program was to ensure that tower cranes were being operated safely.

A Bayswater waste recycling company has been fined a total of $330,000 (and ordered to pay an additional $234,000 in costs) after being found guilty of gross negligence over a 2016 incident in which a labour hire worker’s arm was amputated at the shoulder.

Resource Recovery Solutions Pty Ltd was found guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court in July of two offences - gross negligence in failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment for a labour hire worker, and non-compliance with an improvement notice issued by WorkSafe.

WorkSafe has successfully prosecuted two companies and two individuals for breaches of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and Regulations.

Warren James Piggott, Screenwest Pty Ltd, Quentin Victor Healy and Hanssen Pty Ltd were recently successfully prosecuted by WorkSafe WA.

In Joondalup Magistrates Court on Friday a machinery operator at a recycling facility was fined $7500 (and ordered to pay $1000 in costs) for failing to take reasonable care during an incident in which a diesel mechanic was seriously injured.

The main contractor for the Forrestfield Airport Link Project has been fined $150,000 (and ordered to pay $3,000 in costs) after a worker sustained major electrical burns when a crane made contact with or came too close to high voltage overhead power lines.

Salini Australia Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court last month to failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment and, by that failure, causing serious harm to an employee. The company was fined on Friday.

A Mandurah glazing company has been fined $90,000 (and ordered to pay $3474.50 in costs) after a worker was seriously injured when he was trapped under multiple glass sheets that fell on him.

Madora Bay Glass Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious harm to an employee and was fined in the Mandurah Magistrates Court yesterday.

WorkSafe has commenced prosecution action against a shed building company and its director over the fall death of a worker and the serious injury of another worker in March 2020.

MT Sheds (WA) Pty Ltd and company director Mark Thomas Withers face a total of seven separate charges including charges in relation to the death of Jake Williams and serious injuries to Fraser Pinchin last year.

Building company Gran Designs WA Pty Ltd has been fined a total of $175,000 over the 2017 death of a contract worker in the South-West town of Yarloop.

The company pleaded guilty in the Bunbury Magistrates Court yesterday to five charges, the most serious of which was failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing the death of the worker. On this charge the company was fined $150,000.

WorkSafe has reminded owner-builders of their responsibility for workplace safety after an owner-builder was fined $25,000 and granted a spent conviction over an incident in which a worker fell from a roof.

The South-West owner-builder (who cannot be identified due to the spent conviction) pleaded guilty to failing to take practicable measures to ensure that persons at the workplace were not exposed to hazards, and was fined in the Margaret River Court on Monday.

The director of a shed building company has become the first person to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment under WA’s workplace safety and health laws.

Director of MT Sheds (WA) Pty Ltd - Mark Thomas Withers - was yesterday sentenced in the Esperance Magistrates Court to two years and two months’ imprisonment following the 2020 death of a young worker and the serious injury of another.

He is to serve eight months of the sentence immediately, with the remaining 18 months suspended for 12 months. He was also fined $2250 for operating a crane without the appropriate licence.

WorkSafe has commenced prosecution action against a subcontractor over serious injuries suffered by a worker on the Forrestfield Airport Link Project in July 2018.

Salini Australia Pty Ltd has been charged with failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment and, by that failure, causing serious harm to an employee.

On the afternoon of July 7, 2018, three Salini employees were engaged in connecting steel pipes in an underground tunnel near the Airport Central Station platform when there was a loud explosion.