In a follow-up to ,a previous article about the prosecution of WAM Homes, a second company, Wanjia Metal Works Pty Ltd, has been fined for failing to reduce the risk associated with a fall from height by using a passive fall prevention device and for permitting construction work to be performed by a person who did not hold a current construction induction card.
In April 2024, a member of the public alerted WorkSafe to unsafe working at height practices being undertaken at a Noble Park site where eight three-storey townhouses were being constructed by principal contractor WAM Homes Pty Ltd. WAM Homes had engaged Wanjia Metal Works to undertake the fabrication, supply and installation of structural steel on the project.
A WorkSafe inspector attended the Noble Park site and observed a worker working halfway up an A-Frame ladder positioned on an unprotected live edge of the first floor area of one of the townhouses under construction, and another worker at the base of that ladder standing with his back to the unprotected live edge. There were no fall protection devices in use and no guard railing in place.
Following the Inspector’s directive, the two workers stopped work and descended from the first floor via an unsecured A-frame ladder used to access and egress the first floor area. The Inspector met with the WAM Homes Project Site Manager and three of the Wanjia Metal Works workers on site. The workers could not provide evidence of any health and coordination plan for the Noble Park site; they could not confirm that a Safe Work Method Statement had been prepared before the works commenced.
The WorkSafe Inspector met with an individual subcontractor and the three employees of Wanjia Metal Works, and it was revealed that one of the Wanjia Metal Works employees was on the first floor area and did not hold a current construction induction card.
The court sentenced Wanjia Metal Works to a fine of $17,500 without conviction for their failure to reduce the risk associated with a fall from height by using a passive fall prevention device and for carrying out construction work that was performed by a person who did not hold a current construction induction card.
Read more: Prosecution Result Summaries and Enforceable Undertakings | WorkSafe Victoria