A sales consultant for a Queensland formwork company has been fined $15,000 for breaching his employee WHS duties after an incident that resulted in serious injuries for two other workers.
The man’s role included sales consulting, arranging the drawing of formwork plans and attending worksites to give tutorials and demonstrations of the best way to erect formwork systems.
In April 2023 the consultant attended a Darra Qld construction site to provide a formwork tutorial to company personnel – the tutorial involved erecting a 25 metre long, five metre high formwork. While he was still on site the formwork collapsed and knocked over a 3m high scissor lift containing two workers. One of the workers jumped from the scissor lift as it fell and suffered knee and elbow fracturs and lacerations.
The second worker in the scissor lift was crushed by the formwork, sustaining traumatic complex facial fractures.
A WHS Queensland investigation found that the formwork was not anchored or braced in accordance with the relevant formwork plans. It was determined that the sales consultant breached his duties as a worker by his failure to ensure the formwork was erected according to plans, his failure to ensure the site workers were provided with training on the task, and his failure to ensure supervision was provided during the erection of the formwork.
The court did not record a conviction against the man and has given him two months to pay the $15,000 fine.
Read more: $15,000 fine for worker after formwork collapse | owhsp
