A roof plumbing, tiling and general maintenance service company Melbourne Iron Roofing Pty Ltd (MIR) has been fined $10,000 following a fall from heights incident. The company had previously been issued with an Improvement Notice for working at heights breaches.
In July 2021 a WorkSafe inspector attended a worksite where MIR were operating and observed work being undertaken at height with no fall protection. An improvement notice was issued. Upon the inspector’s return four days later, it was determined that MIR had complied with the improvement notice by implementing a suitable fall protection system – they had provided a harness for roof workers and a Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS).
In February 2023 MIR was working on a repair to a tiled roof which had leaked at a residential dwelling in Montmorency. Two MIR employees were working on the roof without any fall protection in place. One employee was operating a leaf-blower cleaning out the gutters when he placed his leg onto a timber and Laserlite porch canopy. Due to the wood being rotten, it gave way. He fell from the canopy area, launched past the concrete porch and landed on the grass three metres below.
WorkSafe attended the site and issued another Improvement Notice for failure to control the risk of a fall from a height of more than two metres, which was complied with within six weeks.
Falling from heights is one of the leading causes of workplace deaths. Regulators invest significant resources into informing, educating and guiding employers in how to manage the risks of working at heights, but we still see repeated examples of employers not complying with their duty to ensure that their workplaces and systems are safe, and risks are managed.
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