Two Adelaide companies have been fined a total of $108,000 after a labour hire worker was seriously injured when he fell 4.6m through a skylight.
SafeWork SA prosecuted construction company SA Construct Pty Ltd and labour hire firm Brother Hu Pty Ltd over their failures to ensure the health and safety of their workers under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012.
Both companies were sentenced in the SA Employment Tribunal on 20 November 2024 over the incident, which occurred at the Resthaven Age Care Facility in Bellevue Heights in March 2022.
A SafeWork SA investigation found SA Construct had been contracted to remove old roof tiles and replace them with corrugated iron sheeting. Brother Hu, who employed the labourer, was providing workers to undertake the work.
Before starting the project, SA Construct undertook a risk assessment to identify potential hazards – but, critically, it missed the skylight.
This was one of several opportunities the company had to properly identify and manage the risk posed by the skylight.
On the day of the incident, two SA Construct workers were removing tiles and placing them in piles.
The labourer who was injured was tasked with carrying the tiles to the edge of the roof.
Although he was not required to go near either of two skylights on the roof, he somehow fell through one, landing 4.6m onto the floor below.
He suffered concussion, a fractured scapula, and two fractures to his spine along with other internal injuries.
After being released from hospital, the labourer required a further six months of ongoing medical and physiotherapy treatment during which time he was unable to work.
Both companies pleaded guilty in the Tribunal and convictions were recorded.
SA Construct was fined $90,000 as well as being ordered to pay prosecution costs and a victims of crime levy totalling $1647.
Brother Hu Pty Ltd was fined $18,000 and ordered to pay $1647 in prosecution costs and a victims of crime levy.
In her sentencing remarks, Deputy President Eaton said that although SA Construct had a comprehensive and compliant program of WHS policies and procedures:
“The failure which constituted this offence was a failure to follow their risk assessment procedures diligently. In this respect, it is an employer which did pay attention to its health and safety obligations but failed on this occasion.
“Although I have identified four points along the way where the potential to identify and manage the risk from skylights was lost, it is a different matter for SA Construct to identify itself why those opportunities were lost and how to ensure a level of diligence that will ensure not repeat of these or similar errors in the future.
Both SA Construct and Brother Hu have since introduced a raft of measures to improve work health and safety.
SA Construct also provided rehabilitation and return to work support for the injured labourer beyond its legal requirements.
Quotes attributable to SafeWork SA Executive Director Glenn Farrell
The injuries caused to the labourer were serious – but they could have been worse. Workers have died falling from lower heights.
Fall prevention should be the first hazard businesses identify and manage appropriately.
Simple protection over or barriers around the skylight would have easily avoided this incident. Yet again we see these hazards being overlooked.
Source: SafeWork SA
