A District Court judge has said a clear message needs to be sent to the building and construction industry to take risks seriously, after a worker fell onto a furnace floor at the Port Kembla steelworks.
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Justice Di Strathdee fined BlueScope contractor Dominion Global $300,000 for a breach of the Work Health and Safety Act in 2018 when a worker feared for his life after falling six metres.
BlueScope was also fined $300,000 separately for the same incident.
In sentencing Dominion, which pleaded guilty, Justice Strathdee directed her attention to the standards of safety in the building and construction industry.
"A clear message needs to be sent to employers generally, and in the building and construction industry more specifically, that breaches of the WHS Act in the face of known, serious and identified risks are to be treated seriously when they come before the courts," she said.
"In particular, a message needs to be sent to principal contractors of construction sites that they cannot take shortcuts when it comes to managing serious and known risks to which their subcontracted workers may be exposed."
Justice Strathdee made these comments after finding that Dominion's safe work systems were inadequate for the task at hand.
In 2018, Dominion was contracted by BlueScope to complete repair works in the waste duct area above a furnace in the Hot Strip Mill area of the steelworks.
A void in the waste duct area opened above the furnace, which was six metres below.
Dominion workers erected a scaffold near the void to provide fall protection and allow workers to complete the repair work. Three hours into constructing the scaffold, Dominion workers stopped work as they felt the set up was unsafe.
Mr Kember directed the workers to remove the scaffold from the area, stay 2m away from the void, pull the scaffold away from the void, and dismantle and remove the scaffold. At the time of the incident, the scaffold was situated within 1m of the opening.
Following this, Dominion and BlueScope workers inspected the waste duct and decided the scaffold could be used as a barricade for workers within two metres of the void.
The next day, on November 13, four Dominion workers including Jack Cullen entered the waste duct area to dismantle the scaffold. Mr Cullen walked towards the scaffold and fell into the void, falling six metres to the floor below.
Mr Cullen was taken to Wollongong Hospital for treatment and surgery. The extent of his injuries has prevented him from returning to work since.
Prior to staff beginning work, four Dominion workers including Mr Cullen signed two Job Safety Environmental Analyses for work in the waste duct area. Justice Strathdee found the documents were not relevant to the work being conducted, nor did it identify the void in the waste duct area.
On the day of the incident, workers attended a pre-start toolbox meeting which noted slips/trips/falls as safety topics but did not include a sketch of the waste duct area or information on the scaffold location or the void.
"Mr. Kember directed the workers to remove the scaffold from the area, stay 2m away from the void, pull the scaffold away from the void, and dismantle and remove the scaffold. At the time of the incident, the scaffold was situated within 1m of the opening," Justice Strathdee said.
While acknowledging Dominion's unblemished safety record and the steps it has taken to improve its safety practices after the incident, Justice Strathdee found the offending was in the mid range of seriousness, and consequently fined Dominion $300,000. Dominion has not since conducted work for BlueScope.
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