Winter Issue 2009 - cfmeu

TA K I N G A C T I O N
with Joe McDonald
Companies charged over Scaffy Deaths
More than 100 workers on the site
and passing pedestrians watched
in horror as the workers
desperately called for help and
then fell to their deaths.
THREE companies and a company
director have been charged following
an investigation into the deaths of
two Gold Coast workers who fell
from a swing stage scaffold on a
Broadbeach high rise last year.
Workplace Health and Safety
Queensland laid the charges after
concluding an investigation into the
deaths of Chris Gear, 36, and Steve
Sayer, 52, on June 21 last year.
The men were fatally injured when
the swing stage scaffold they were
using to carry out concrete
patchwork on the Pegasus high rise,
then under construction, failed and
fell 26 levels to the ground. More
than 100 workers on the site and
passing pedestrians watched in
horror as the workers desperately
called for help and then fell to their
deaths. The men slid to one side of
the stage when one side slumped
before the entire structure collapsed
and they fell. Between four and five
identical swinging stages were
working across the high rise at the
time. The charges allege various
breaches of the Workplace Health
and Safety Act. Allscaff Systems Pty
Ltd, which erected the swing stage,
was charged with failing to ensure
the plant was erected in a way that
ensured it was safe when used
properly.
Report unsafe worksites – your life depends on it:
Call the union office on 9221 1055 or call your Organiser.
Hanssen Pty Ltd cops
massive $40,000 fine
HELP sign hanging from a Hanssen Pty
Ltd site.
Hanssen Pty Ltd has been fined a
total of $40,000 for failing to ensure
that tilt-up construction workers had
completed approved courses after a
panel collapsed at a site in East Perth.
Hanssen Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to
two charges under the Occupational
Safety and Health Regulations and
was fined $20,000 on each charge in
the Perth Magistrates Court.
In July 2006, WorkSafe inspectors
attended a construction site in East
Perth in response to a report that a
tilt-up panel had collapsed at the
site.
In the process of issuing prohibition
notices to the site manager, the
inspectors discovered that two
workers had not completed an
approved tilt-up safety course for the
aspect of work in which they were
involved.
When the inspectors returned to the
site three days later, they found that
one of the workers had still not
completed an approved tilt-up safety
course but was still performing tiltup
work.
Meanwhile another construction
company was fined a total of
$60,000 over the collapse of a
seven-tonne tilt-up panel on a West
Leederville site in 2007.
JBT Corp Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to
three charges under the
Occupational Safety and Health
Regulations and was fined $20,000
on each charge in the Perth
Magistrates Court.
Construction Worker – Winter 2009 Page 35
CFMEU