The Full Bench of the NSW Industrial Court has handed down new penalties against a Wollongong company director after his company continually ignored safety warnings that eventually resulted in a man being seriously injured.
The increased penalties imposed by the Court on the director followed a successful appeal by WorkCover NSW, which challenged the inadequacy of the penalties originally imposed.
The Court agreed with WorkCover that the $18,500 penalty originally handed down to Formcom director Peter Karabelas was inadequate considering the continued failure to comply with WorkCover’s improvement notices.
Formcom builds formwork used as a cast when building concrete floors and walls. Once the concrete has hardened, the formwork frame is removed.
In early July 2006, WorkCover visited a construction site on Crown Street in Wollongong and told the company to immediately address several safety problems, such as the lack of guardrails preventing falls.
Those warnings were ignored, and on 19 July 2006 a worker was seriously injured when he fell seven metres while working at the Crown Street Site.
When WorkCover inspectors returned on 20 July 2006 to carry out a formal investigation into the incident, they found another worker was being put at the same risk of a fall.
A WorkCover inspector issued two Improvement Notices relating to the risks of working at heights.
Then in another visit on 4 August 2006 a third worker was placed at risk from a four metre fall from a work platform that did not have guard rails or an adequate catch platform.
In handing down a $27,000 fine, the Court found that the repeated failure of Mr Karabelas to ensure the safety of his workers demonstrated an attitude of deliberate defiance of safety laws and required a stronger penalty.
WorkCover’s General Manager of Work Health and Safety Division, John Watson said this case was a reminder of the importance to businesses of being fully aware of their responsibilities to work health and safety.
“The first fall should never have happened,” Mr Watson said. “WorkCover advised the director and the company to fix the safety risks and they didn’t. This resulted in a man being seriously injured and nearly killed.
“It is incredible that WorkCover’s warnings were repeatedly ignored. The public expects WorkCover to act swiftly when companies continue to put workers’ lives at risk, and we did.
“Serious accidents and ongoing risks such as these are unacceptable in the workplace and employers need to act to safeguard workers otherwise significant injuries and fatalities will occur.”
The appeal was lodged against Mr Karabelas and not the company, which was fined a total of $125,000 in the first instance, but has since been deregistered.
The Court agreed with WorkCover that the $18,500 penalty originally handed down to Formcom director Peter Karabelas was inadequate considering the continued failure to comply with WorkCover’s improvement notices.
Formcom builds formwork used as a cast when building concrete floors and walls. Once the concrete has hardened, the formwork frame is removed.
In early July 2006, WorkCover visited a construction site on Crown Street in Wollongong and told the company to immediately address several safety problems, such as the lack of guardrails preventing falls.
Those warnings were ignored, and on 19 July 2006 a worker was seriously injured when he fell seven metres while working at the Crown Street Site.
When WorkCover inspectors returned on 20 July 2006 to carry out a formal investigation into the incident, they found another worker was being put at the same risk of a fall.
A WorkCover inspector issued two Improvement Notices relating to the risks of working at heights.
Then in another visit on 4 August 2006 a third worker was placed at risk from a four metre fall from a work platform that did not have guard rails or an adequate catch platform.
In handing down a $27,000 fine, the Court found that the repeated failure of Mr Karabelas to ensure the safety of his workers demonstrated an attitude of deliberate defiance of safety laws and required a stronger penalty.
WorkCover’s General Manager of Work Health and Safety Division, John Watson said this case was a reminder of the importance to businesses of being fully aware of their responsibilities to work health and safety.
“The first fall should never have happened,” Mr Watson said. “WorkCover advised the director and the company to fix the safety risks and they didn’t. This resulted in a man being seriously injured and nearly killed.
“It is incredible that WorkCover’s warnings were repeatedly ignored. The public expects WorkCover to act swiftly when companies continue to put workers’ lives at risk, and we did.
“Serious accidents and ongoing risks such as these are unacceptable in the workplace and employers need to act to safeguard workers otherwise significant injuries and fatalities will occur.”
The appeal was lodged against Mr Karabelas and not the company, which was fined a total of $125,000 in the first instance, but has since been deregistered.
No comments:
Post a Comment