Failure to prepare SWMS
GVP Fabricators, a steel fabrication company, was engaged to undertake steel construction works at a building site in Clayton.
On 16 December 2017, GVP was erecting beams with bearing joints to a height of about 5 metres. The task was high risk construction work as there was a risk of a person falling more than 2 metres, however there was no safe work method statement (SWMS) as required by regulation 5.1.9 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007. Strangely SWMS had been prepared for each other step in the steel erection for the job. The company was sentenced, without conviction, to pay a fine of $10,000 plus $9,923 in costs.
To check all of the recent prosecutions, go to the WorkSafe Prosecution Result Summaries and Enforceable Undertakings webpage.
UK: Contractor fined over $1m
A construction company in the UK has been sentenced and fined £600,000 (A$1,093,422) after an employee was run over and killed by a dumper truck.
The Court heard that on 5 December 2016, Allenbuild Limited was the principal contractor on a construction site when an agency labourer was run over and killed by a dumper truck, driven by an employee of Crummock (Scotland) Limited.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found Allenbuild Limited failed to organise the construction site in such a way to ensure that no work was carried out on or near traffic routes whilst vehicles were in operation. It is thought that the deceased was spray painting a 'piling marker' in front of a dumper truck, when it moved forward, driving over him.
Source: HSE press release
