Adbri commits to safety spend and review following 2021 fall

The cement firm will spend more than $875,000 on safety improvements following a 2021 incident that left a worker with a long list of serious injuries.

Adbri will review safety measures across its sites, including at Birkenhead in Adelaide's north. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Cement and masonry products manufacturer Adbri has agreed to spend more than $875,000 on safety improvements following a 2021 incident that left a worker with serious head injuries.

The incident occurred in May 2021 at the company’s Klein Point limestone mine on Yorke Peninsula, when the worker fell nearly 4 metres from a platform onto a concrete floor within the site’s crushing plant.

The worker sustained serious injuries including a fractured skull and ribs, broken vertebrae, hearing loss and amnesia.

He has since returned to work and is currently on restricted hours.

Under an enforceable undertaking approved by SafeWork SA earlier this month, Adbri (previously known as Adelaide Brighton) has committed to spend at least $876,545 on safety improvements including a redesign of the crusher infrastructure at Klein Point and the acquisition of a new specialised rock breaker to assist the injured person’s return to work.

The company will also appoint an additional site supervisor at the site, where workers will be provided with additional training on health and safety.

Height safety measures at Adbri’s Birkenhead and Angaston sites will also be reviewed as part of the enforceable undertaking, which follows a SafeWork SA investigation. It was approved by South Australia’s workplace safety regulator earlier this month as an alternative to prosecution.

Adbri had already spent close to $300,000 on rectifications at the Klein Point site prior to the

enforceable undertaking.

SafeWork SA executive director Glenn Farrell. Picture: SafeWork SA

An Adbri spokesman said the company “sincerely regrets the safety accident which occurred at Klein Point”, and “places the highest priority on the safety of our employees and contractors”.

“We have learned from this incident and introduced improvements in our systems and training to reduce the risk of an event like this occurring again,” he said.

“The company immediately took actions to review and improve height risk controls around the Klein Point site and across its operations, including through the introduction of a number of engineering enhancements, improved systems and processes.”

SafeWork SA executive director Glenn Farrell said the commitments made by Adbri would deliver benefits to workers, the industry and wider communities in which the company operates.

He said Adbri had made assurances that the behaviour that led to the alleged contravention had ceased and the company was committed to managing ongoing risks to health and safety at the company’s sites.

“The undertaking commits Adelaide Brighton to actions that are above the minimum standard of compliance,” he said.

“I have concluded that an EU (enforceable undertaking) is the preferred enforcement option, rather than continuing with prosecution in this case.

“This is due to the opportunity to provide lasting organisational change within Adelaide Brighton and the implementation of monitored and targeted health and safety improvements that will deliver benefits to workers, industry and the community, which may not be achieved by prosecution.”