Prosecution Details

The Accused, being a person, who at a workplace, was an employer, did not:

a. identify each hazard to which a person at the workplace was likely to be exposed in

relation to the person falling from one level at the workplace to another;

b. assess the risk of injury or harm to a person resulting from each hazard, if any,

identified under paragraph (a); and

c. consider the means by which the risk may be reduced; contrary to regulation 3.49 of

the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations 1996 made under the Occupational

Safety and Health Act 1984.

At all relevant times the Accused operated a scaffolding business from its premises at Currambine . On 15 September 2004 the Accused's employees were carrying out scaffolding work at Cambridge Street in Wembley where residential buildings were being constructed.

The scaffolding work required that the Accused's employees work at heights of up to 6 metres. On 14 September 2004 the Accused instructed the injured employee to go to Cambridge Street in Wembley the next day and remove scaffolding from the front building that was being constructed and erect it to slab height on the rear building that was also being constructed. This work required the employee to work on the front building from 6 metres above the ground.

The Accused did not identify the hazard, assess the risk or consider the means by which the risk of the person falling 6 metres may have been reduced. The employee fell approximately 4 metres to the ground from the scaffolding attached to the front building. When he fell he was carrying out the work he had been instructed to do. He was seriously injured.

Shortly after he fell a director of the Accused arrived at the workplace and instructed another employee to climb up on the front building to a point that was 6 metres above the ground and attach a handrail to the scaffolding. The employee carried out this work.

The Accused did not identify the hazard, assess the risk or consider the means by which the risk of this second employee falling 6 metres may have been reduced. The Accused pleaded guilty