A steel fixing company, Coconut PT, has been fined after an employee was seriously injured in a May 2023 fall on the construction on a 40-storey Southbank building. The employee’s injuries included a fractured lower back and spine, a fractured knee, and a torn knee ligament.
Coconut PT was engaged to perform steel fixing work inside a jump form on the 40-storey building. A jump form is a formwork system for the construction of concrete structures such as stairwell or elevator cores in high-rise buildings - the formwork climbs in steps following each concrete pour.
The jump form in which Coconut PT were to perform their work included a scaffold system consisting of hanger brackets and planks that created temporary walking platforms. The design of the scaffold required the hangers to be fixed to wall forms with nails.
A Coconut PT employee was walking across the platform when it failed causing him to fall more than two metres to the jump form floor, with the plank he had been standing on landing on top of him.
During WorkSafe’s investigation if was found that the scaffold was incomplete due to hanger brackets not being securely fixed to the wall form – some brackets had only a single nail or no nail at all – and because the scaffold had no perimeter protection in the form of handrails installed.
It was reasonable to expect the Coconut PT should ensure that no work occurred on an incomplete scaffold, and that high-risk construction work was performed in accordance with the prepared SWMS which required perimeter protection such as handrails.
WorkSafe Chief Health and Safety Officer Sam Jenkin said, “Each year hundreds of construction workers are seriously injured or killed in incidents that could’ve been avoided with the right safety measures in place - including the adequate use of fall prevention measures and safe work method statements."
“WorkSafe will continue to take the strongest possible enforcement action against employers who don’t take their obligations seriously and allow workers pay the price for their safety failures.”
The maximum applicable penalty at the time of the incident for a failure to ensure a safe workplace and safe systems of work was approximately $1.6 million. Coconut PT has entered into liquidation and was not present at Court for their hearing. The company was fined $60,000.
There are many serious risks associated with jump forms – employers can find information on how to control those risks at the WorkSafe Jump forms and slip forms - developing a safe system of work | WorkSafe Victoria page and also from Safe Work Australia at Guide to Slip, Jump and Travelling Formwork Systems.
Read more: $60,000 fine after worker falls through scaffold | WorkSafe Victoria