by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Dandenong South galvanising business has been fined $340,000 after a worker was fatally crushed by a fallen load from a crane.
GB Galvanizing Service Pty Ltd pleaded guilty at the Melbourne County Court to failing to provide a safe working environment.
On Friday 21 March, the court also ordered the company to publicise the offence, its consequences and the penalty in an industry publication.
Prosecutors say a gantry crane operator was crushed when a jig steel frame and a metal product detached from the crane’s spreader bar in March 2022.
WorkSafe investigators say the company’s training materials instructed workers not to stand or work beneath suspended loads but did not mandate the use of jig stands.
The jig stands were available at the factory to support products lifted by a crane while being checked.
CCTV footage showed workers standing or moving beneath or within the fall shadow of 69 loads being suspended by the crane in the days leading up to and on the day of the incident, WorkSafe alleged.
The court found it was reasonably practicable for GB Galvanizing Service to require the use of jig stands when products were being checked and to ban workers from being beneath, or in the fall shadow of, a load that was suspended from a crane.
WorkSafe health and safety executive director Sam Jenkin said it was not enough for employers to have safety procedures in place, they must also enforce them.
“The dangers of working with suspended loads are no secret and it’s incredibly frustrating to know equipment was available at the workplace that could have prevented this tragic death,” Mr Jenkin said.
“Duty holders must have adequate systems in place to ensure workers are following their training and instructions at all times, for their own safety and of those working around them.”
