Stonemason fined $51,000 after stone slab falls on worker
10 Mar 2025•BlueSafe Team•Source: WorkSafe VIC
Baltic Stonemason Professionals Group Pty Ltd has been convicted and fined $51,000 after a worker was struck by a falling stone slab at its Dandenong warehouse. The company was found guilty of three breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The Dandenong Magistrates' Court sentenced the company on Thursday, imposing an aggregate fine of $45,000 for two charges relating to its failure to provide the information, training and supervision employees needed to work safely. It received a further $6,000 fine for failing to comply with an improvement notice and was ordered to pay $5,674 in costs.
The incident occurred in August 2023 while an assistant was trying to separate two stone slabs on a storage rack so he could position a grab clamp to lift them with a davit crane. The court heard he pulled one of the two-metre-wide slabs forward with his hand before it fell onto his chest and shoulders, breaking apart on impact.
The worker crawled out from under the slab and was treated by paramedics before being taken to hospital. WorkSafe investigators found he had returned to the workplace in a new role the previous day after an 18-month absence and had received only verbal instructions about moving slabs.
The investigation also found the worker was unsupervised when the incident happened. There was no restraint in front of the slabs, and he was standing within the slab's fall shadow.
The court heard the company needed to give workers information about slab-handling hazards and the load capacity of storage racks and retaining posts. Workers also needed instructions to fit upright retaining posts with suitable load capacity before moving slabs, along with training in documented procedures for the task.
Supervision was also needed to ensure workers installed upright retaining safety posts before moving slabs into the safety racks. The court heard the company had initially failed to meet an improvement notice requiring it to revise its standard operating procedures and train all employees.
WorkSafe Executive Director Health and Safety Sam Jenkin said employers must provide every worker with the training and supervision needed to work safely, particularly when beginning a new job or returning to work.
"Every worker deserves, and is owed, information about the hazards involved in their work – there’s simply no excuse for failing to take the time to properly train a worker," Mr Jenkin said.
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