A Victorian employer that failed to provide fall protection or induct workers in its safe work method statement has been convicted and fined $250,000, after a deemed employee fell seven storeys to his death.
In January 2010, Australian Aluminium Shopfitters Pty Ltd (AAS, now in liquidation) had engaged the employee of a contractor to perform glazing work on a high-rise apartment complex in Melbourne.
The employee was using an AAS-owned chariot - a cantilevered mobile device with a raised platform - to access a high area when both he and the chariot tumbled over the edge of the building and fell to the ground below.
Magistrate Duncan Reynolds found the employer breached the Victorian OHS Act, in failing to provide workers with full-perimeter fall protection, instruct workers to use static lines when using the chariot, and induct workers in the applicable SWMS.
The employer did not enter a plea. After the incident, the CFMEU issued a safety alert in which it announced a ban on the use of cantilevered chariots on construction sites.
