Companies plead guilty after man seriously injured in worksite fall

THE employers of a man who was seriously injured when he fell though a skylight while removing asbestos at Nakara Primary School have pleaded guilty to breaching their duty of care

The employers of a man who was seriously injured when he fell though a skylight while removing asbestos at Nakara Primary School have pleaded guilty to breaching their duty of care

THE employers of a man who was seriously injured when he fell though a skylight while removing asbestos at Nakara Primary School have pleaded guilty to breaching their duty of care.

The Darwin Local Court heard the man broke multiple bones in the fall on April 8, 2017 and was unable to work for a year afterwards as a result.

Alice Springs company Probuild NT Pty Ltd and subcontractor Breakthrough NQ Pty Ltd both pleaded guilty on Wednesday to failing to comply with a health and safety duty.

Breakthrough also pleaded guilty to failing to preserve the incident site after workers moved some of the asbestos sheets following the fall out of safety concerns but the same charge against Probuild was withdrawn.

Probuild’s lawyer, Joshua Nottle, told the court the company ordinarily had a “positive, safety-conscious culture” but had “stretched itself a bit thin with some of the project managers it was employing” during a time of rapid expansion.

“Probuild takes their commitment to safety seriously,” he said.

“They have systems in place which, unfortunately, fell down on this occasion.”

Melissa Esposito, acting for Breakthrough, also maintained her client did not have a “blatant disregard for worker health and safety”.

“It has systems in place that clearly failed,” she said.

But WorkSafe prosecutor Lyma Nguyen said having safety procedures on paper was “not good enough” and the risk of serious injury or death at the worksite was “actual, present and ongoing”.

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“Workers would have needed to stand on the edge of the void and literally lean over and across to remove the asbestos sheeting,” she said.

“Workers should be able to go home at the end of the work day and return to their families in one piece.”

Chief Judge John Lowndes will deliver his sentence at a later date but was critical that work was allowed to continue on the site after the fall.

“Somebody should have intervened and said ‘That’s that, enough’s enough’,” he said.