Metal finisher fined $340,000 over fatal crane incident
24 Mar 2025•BlueSafe Team•Source: WorkSafe VIC
G.B. Galvanizing Service Pty Ltd has been fined $340,000 after a worker was fatally injured by a load that fell from an overhead gantry crane in March 2022.
The company was sentenced in the Melbourne County Court on Friday after previously pleading guilty to one charge of failing to provide and maintain a working environment that was safe and without risks to health. The court also ordered it to publicise the offence, its consequences and the penalty in an industry publication.
The court heard that overhead gantry cranes moved metal products around the workplace while they were checked and prepared for galvanisation. The products were attached to steel frames called jigs.
The worker was operating a gantry crane when a jig and its attached metal product came away from the crane’s spreader bar. The load fell onto him, causing fatal injuries.
WorkSafe investigators found that the company’s training materials told workers not to stand or work beneath suspended loads. However, they did not explicitly require workers to use the available jig stands to support products during checks.
CCTV footage obtained during the investigation showed workers standing or moving beneath, or within the fall shadow of, 69 suspended loads in the days before and on the day of the incident.
The court found it was reasonably practicable for the company to require jig stands when products were being checked. It also found the system of work should have prohibited workers from being beneath, or within the fall shadow of, loads suspended from a crane.
WorkSafe Executive Director of Health and Safety Sam Jenkin said employers needed to enforce safety procedures, not simply have them in place. He said duty holders must have adequate systems to ensure workers followed their training and instructions.
"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.
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