Prosecution Details

Being the main contractor at a workplace, failed to ensure that a scaffold from which a person or thing could fall more than 4 metres was inspected and tagged by a competency person before the scaffold was used.

The defendant was the main contractor for the building of several commercial premises in Osborne Park.

The defendant had contracted a plastering team to apply an acrylic textured finish to the outside of the commercial premises under construction. The plastering team supplied and erected a mobile aluminium scaffold of approximately 5.5 metres in height which was defective and had not been installed by a competency person. Victor James Smith T/As Westexture was also prosecuted in relation to this matter under regulation 6.3(1).

The Occupational Safety and Health Regulations 1996 requires the main contractor to ensure that scaffolding of more than 4 metres is inspected by a "competent person" before it is used.

Her Worship MS J Musk SM noted that the scaffold was 5.5 metres high and had obvious defects. There was a risk of injury had workers fallen from it and the scaffold had not been tagged. If the scaffold had been inspected and tagged, the defects in the scaffold would have been picked up. The Magistrate noted that the defendant had taken a number of steps since the date of the offence to improve its safety systems.

The defendant pleaded guilty.