Advanced Roofing Sydney fined after roofer falls through St Joseph’s College roof

A roofing company has been handed a six-figure fine after an employee was left with traumatic injuries when he fell through a hole in a roof while working at a top Sydney private school.

A roofing company has been handed a six-figure fine after an employee was left with multiple injuries when he fell through a roof at a top Sydney private school.

Advanced Roofing Sydney pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to exposing an employee to a risk of death or serious injury in relation to the traumatic incident at St Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill in July 2019.

The court action was taken by SafeWork NSW after roofer and labourer Austin Humphreys suffered “multiple traumatic injuries” to his upper limbs, lower limbs and face after falling from 8.42m through a hole in the roof of the school’s gymnasium.

The incident occurred as Mr Humphreys was carrying roof sheeting, tripped on a sandbag, and fell through a black plastic sheet which was covering the hole.

Mr Humphreys – aged 22 at the time – landed on the basketball court and was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital where he remained for three weeks to undergo treatment.

A photo taken at the scene by SafeWork NSW.

A year after the incident, Mr Humphreys was certified unfit for work due to his injuries.

In a victim impact statement, he said he continues to suffer pain, suffers PTSD, and can no longer do many of the things he used to enjoy such roofing, football, boxing, playing the guitar and riding a motorbike.

The incident occurred at St Joseph's College.

On the day of the incident, Advanced Roofing Sydney had not required workers to wear harnesses when undertaking the work.

The company had surrounded the hole with yellow insulation bags which it said was to prevent water entering the building and to indicate to workers the location of the hole.

The court heard the work on the roof was classified as “high risk construction work” and should have been carried out using fall prevention devices.

Regulations also required holes in roofs to be covered with material strong enough to prevent people falling through.

The incident occurred during roof works at the college in 2019.

Ajmal Aziz Zazy, the company’s sole director, acknowledged risk assessments prior to the incident “were not adequate and did not identify the risk of falling through the penetrations”.

On the day of the incident, workers were told to “be aware of your surroundings” and “look out for each other”.

Judge David Russell found the likelihood of the risk occurring at the site “was high” due to the “many dangerous unguarded penetrations (or holes) on the roof”.

He said Mr Humphries would “never recover” from the incident and was “unlikely to be able to work again”.

“Advanced Roofing knew of the risk. In any event the risk was obvious and foreseeable as there was guidance material directed to this particular risk,” he said.

“Simple and well-known steps were readily available to eliminate or minimise the risk. As Advanced Roofing recognised by its plea of guilty, it was completely inadequate to say to workers, as was said at the toolbox talk: “Look out for yourself”.

“Placing black plastic over the voids, and then placing sandbags and bags of insulation material around the plastic, increased the risk. In effect they created a trip hazard.

“Workers on the roof, who were carrying roofing material, would have been looking where they were going, not down at their feet.”

Advanced Roofing Sydney was fined a total of $150,000, reduced from $200,000 to reflect the company’s guilty plea.

The company said it had improved its workplace systems in response including requiring workers to wear harnesses anchored to structural beams of a roof, and covering holes with ply board at least 20mm in thickness.

The court heard Mr Zazy had apologised to Mr Humphreys in relation to the incident and assisted him with lodging a workers compensation claim.