No OHS policy or procedures uncovered after incident

A NSW company and its director have been fined $60,000 after a contractor suffered serious head and neck injuries at work. Investigation then revealed there were no OHS policies or procedures in place.

The worker, sub-contracted by Full Brick Homes Pty Ltd, suffered a left subdural haemorrhage and skull fractures after falling three metres, landing on his head and shoulders.

'Significant' breaches found

An investigation revealed, and the company admitted, that there were 'significant' OHS breaches at the worksite, including:

  • No documented OHS policy, procedures, safety management plans or safe work method statements were in place.
  • All workers had completed the general construction OHS induction course, however no site specific induction training, instructions or information had been given to any workers on the premises.
  • No protective rails or kickboards in place on stairs or scaffolds, and scaffolding not set up correctly.

No defence

Justice Trish Kavanagh said the director's submission that he was going to put some rail protection up the next day 'can be no defence to all the other elements of the breach'.

'The photographs however reveal a number of significant breaches of the Building Code and the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 at this building site,' Kavanagh said. 'Mr Barratt was responsible for the way the work was performed on this worksite. An analysis of the site reveals significant breaches of the Act.'

The company and director were found guilty and fined $45,000 and $15,000 respectively.

Actions taken since the incident

Since the subject incident, the court heard the director has taken 'significant steps' to address the risk identified and the company has adopted the following additional measures since the accident:

  • safe work method statements for bricklaying and carpentry
  • developed and maintained a site induction procedure for all workers
  • obtain and maintain all sub-contractor details for safe work method statements, including licence details, worker's compensation insurance details, public liability insurance, trade licence details and green card details
  • obtained a hazard material register
  • three of the employees now hold traffic management tickets, two of the employees now hold scaffold tickets, two of the employees now hold hoist tickets
  • all of the site-based employees have completed the WorkCover construction induction certificates
  • three of the employees have completed the Housing Industry Association OHS safety management plan course, and
  • three of the employees have completed the WorkCover forklift tickets

The director told the Court his company is now 'very focused on workplace safety'.

Source: WorkplaceOHS

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