Demolition company fined $40,000 after worker falls through skylight
10 Mar 2025•BlueSafe Team•Source: WorkSafe VIC
City Way Demolition Pty Ltd has been fined $40,000 after a worker fell through a garage roof during demolition work and suffered vertebrae fractures that left him unable to return to work.
The Broadmeadows Magistrates' Court sentenced the company ex parte on Monday after finding it guilty of failing to ensure the workplace was safe and without risks to health. It was also found guilty of failing, without reasonable excuse, to provide information and documents required by WorkSafe, and was ordered to pay $7,135 in costs.
The court heard three City Way workers began demolition work at a single-storey dwelling in October 2022. The work included removing roof tiles by hand. Witnesses saw at least two people on the roof, more than two metres above the ground, without fall protection.
One worker fell through a fibreglass sheet on the garage roof during the work. He sustained vertebrae fractures and has been unable to return to work.
WorkSafe's investigation found the company could reasonably practicably have reduced or eliminated the health and safety risks through a passive fall prevention device, a work positioning system or a fall arrest system. The court also heard that, after the incident, City Way did not comply with a WorkSafe notice requiring information and documents by the end of March 2023.
WorkSafe Executive Director of Health and Safety Sam Jenkin said the risks of working at height were too well known for incidents like this to keep happening. "Despite there being clear regulations, extensive guidance, and far too many examples of preventable injuries and deaths, the company chose to bypass fall safety measures altogether," Mr Jenkin said.
"The blatant disregard for safety – by not having any fall protection in place and then refusing to cooperate with WorkSafe's investigation – is very disappointing."
WorkSafe advised employers to use the highest possible measures from the five levels of the hierarchy of controls to prevent falls from height.
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