Art Civil fined over worker’s injuries at Neutral Bay residential building site

A Sydney demolition company has been handed a six figure fine after a horror workplace incident that left an excavation worker in hospital with leg injuries.

A worker was injured at the building site. Picture: Google Maps.

A Sydney demolition company has been handed a six figure fine after a horror workplace incident that left an excavation worker in hospital with leg injuries.

The NSW District Court has ordered Art Civil Pty Ltd to pay a $150,000 fine following a SafeWork investigation into injuries sustained by a worker employed at a development site in Neutral Bay.

Art Civil had been hired to undertake demolition and bulk excavation at the residential complex at 12–14 Grosvenor St when a large metal beam fell from a building slab at the site and into the glass window of an excavator that was carrying out building demolition works at the site in September 2020.

A worker – who was driving the excavator at the time – was left with leg injuries and was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital to be treated for a broken left leg and a laceration to his right leg

At hospital, he underwent surgery and had a steel rod placed in his leg.

A photo of the site in Neutral Bay. Picture: Google Maps.

The driver of the machine – who was hired as a casual machine operator – has not returned to work for Art Civil.

The court heard that at the time of the incident, the excavator did not have a safety screen fitted to the front cabin window to protect the operator from falling objects.

The court heard the screen had been removed by a previous operator because it was causing “visual obstructions.”

The court heard while a Safe Work method statement was in place for the task of demolition at the site, the injured worker had not seen nor signed the statement prior to commencing work.

The site supervisors did not discuss safe work management systems with the worker before his employment at the site.

District Court Judge Wendy Strathdee said there was no reason why safety measures – including the screen on the excavator – could “not have been implemented”.

“Demolition work is inherently dangerous and carries a real risk of contact between workers and falling objects,” she said.

“The risk was foreseeable (and) the risk to safety was an obvious one. There is no evidence before me as to when the safety screen that was fitted to the front of the caterpillar excavator was removed, or by whom, however, it had not been replaced.

“(Art Civil) had systems and programs to address the issues of work, health and safety, but did not ensure that these measures were implemented.”

Following the incident, Art Civil has carried out systems to improve safety including fitting heavy duty mesh screens to its excavators and has hired specialist contractors to assess its safety processes and procedures.

In handing down the penalty, Judge Wendy Strathdee noted that Art Civil had accepted responsibility for the offence and had acknowledged the injury, loss and damage caused to the worker.

She found the appropriate fine for the offence is $200,000.00, which was reduced by 25 per cent to reflect the plea of guilty.

The case was taken to court by SafeWork NSW which said Art Civil had responsibilities under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 to ensure the health and safety of workers at the site.