A land development company has been fined $95,000 (and ordered to pay $2044.50 in costs) over an incident in 2018 in which a worker was seriously injured.
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First imprisonment under WA’s workplace safety and health laws
The director of a shed building company has become the first person to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment under WA’s workplace safety and health laws.
Director of MT Sheds (WA) Pty Ltd – Mark Thomas Withers – was yesterday sentenced in the Esperance Magistrates Court to two years and two months’ imprisonment following the 2020 death of a young worker and the serious injury of another.
He is to serve eight months of the sentence immediately, with the remaining 18 months suspended for 12 months. He was also fined $2250 for operating a crane without the appropriate licence.
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Court case leads to reminder to owner-builders on workplace safety
WorkSafe has reminded owner-builders of their responsibility for workplace safety after an owner-builder was fined $25,000 and granted a spent conviction over an incident in which a worker fell from a roof.
The South-West owner-builder (who cannot be identified due to the spent conviction) pleaded guilty to failing to take practicable measures to ensure that persons at the workplace were not exposed to hazards, and was fined in the Margaret River Court on Monday.
The owner was in control of construction of a two-storey home on his property, and had previously constructed another home as an owner-builder.
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Building company fined $175,000 over death of worker
Building company Gran Designs WA Pty Ltd has been fined a total of $175,000 over the 2017 death of a contract worker in the South-West town of Yarloop.
The company pleaded guilty in the Bunbury Magistrates Court yesterday to five charges, the most serious of which was failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing the death of the worker. On this charge the company was fined $150,000.
Other charges against Gran Designs involved workers not wearing safety helmets, not having a Safety Management Plan, not having a Safe Work Method Statement on site and workers not holding High Risk Work Licences. On these charges the company was handed a global fine of $25,000.