Issue Date:  -  Tuesday, 14 December 2004

Record $150,000 fine for workplace death

A road construction company was fined a record $150,000 under occupational safety and health laws today after the death of an electrical worker and serious injury of another.

Goldfields Contractors WA Pty Ltd was convicted and fined in the Perth Magistrate’s Court on a charge laid by WorkSafe following the incident where a lightpole being installed in the northern Perth suburb of Madeley two years ago made contact with 132,000-volt overhead powerlines.

The fine is double the previous record of $75,000, imposed two years ago.

Employee Desmond Nicholson was killed in the lightpole incident on December 11, 2002. Mr Nicholson was an employee of Hermans and Rossi Electrical Contractors Pty Ltd, which had been contracted by Goldfields Contractors to install street lighting.

Mr Vince Rossi, of Hermans and Rossi, received second and third degree burns and his left leg was partially amputated.

Goldfields Contractors did not enter a plea to the charge of failing to maintain a safe working environment. The company was also ordered to pay $1000 in costs.

“The size of the penalty reflects community concerns on safety and health in the workplace,” WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said today.

“Everybody has a right to a safe working environment and this case sends a message to all employers about their obligations,” she said.

Goldfields Contractors had a safety manual which included a safe working procedure for work being done in the vicinity of overhead powerlines. This policy was not communicated to Hermans and Rossi Electrical Contractors or its employees before the accident. Nor did Goldfields Contractors take any steps to ensure the policy was followed before and during the installation of the pole.

The court was told that Western Power should have been advised of the work to be done and was not, nor was any arrangement made with Western Power to have the powerlines isolated, turned off or diverted.

Goldfields Contractors was the main contractor for a road works project to extend Hepburn Avenue.

The company exercised management and control of the site through its project manager and site supervisor.

The maximum fine for causing a death by failing to provide a safe working environment is $200,000. That will increase to $500,000 for companies under reforms to the occupational health and safety legislation which take effect from 1 January 2005.

The incident occurred after the 12.5 metre steel pole had been raised by a crane. As the pole was being lowered into its hole, it made contact with the live electrical conductor.