WorkSafe

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.

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.

WorkSafe has issued a warning to licensing assessors and industry in general after a Perth assessor had most High Risk Work Licence assessor classes cancelled for not properly assessing license applicants.

The assessor was registered to assess 18 classes of high-risk work, but 17 of these were cancelled after a WorkSafe investigation found the assessor was not properly assessing workers.

A roofing company has been fined $450,000 (and ordered to pay $3056 in costs) after a roof plumber fell through a penetration on the construction site of the new Perth Museum.

Charman Australia 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 Perth Magistrates Court yesterday.

Charman is one of the first companies to be prosecuted and fined under the regime of stronger penalties for breaches of workplace safety laws introduced in October 2018.

WorkSafe is undertaking a proactive inspection program to look at workplace safety and health issues in takeaway food outlets.

The program will involve inspectors visiting fast food outlets in Perth and regional areas of the State throughout the 2021/22 financial year.

WorkSafe Acting Director Carla van Ijzendoorn said today the inspection program had been prompted by continued significant numbers of lost-time injuries in the sector, along with the fact that young workers were most often injured.