$125,000 fine after workers fall in concrete formwork collapse

Valmont (Vic) Pty Ltd was sentenced in the Sunshine Magistrates' Court on Thursday 3 October after earlier being found guilty of one charge of failing to provide and maintain a safe system of work and one charge of failing to ensure a workplace under its management or control was safe and without risks to health.

Valmont was fined without conviction and ordered to pay $42,752 in costs.

The company had been contracted to convert level two of a multistorey car park in Clarke Street, Sunshine, into office space.

The works involved removing a car park ramp between levels one and two, installing structural steel and formwork, and pouring concrete into the void to complete the office floor.

In July 2019, a section of the formwork failed when a steel beam attaching it to the existing slab broke away as the concrete was being poured, causing three workers to fall more than two metres to the level below.

Two workers were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

A WorkSafe investigation found that Valmont had not arranged for a building surveyor or engineer to inspect the formwork before the concrete pour.

The court found it was reasonably practicable for Valmont to have arranged a pre-pour inspection and to have obtained a written inspection report certifying that the formwork was structurally sound to support the concrete pour.

WorkSafe Executive Director of Health and Safety Sam Jenkin said working with formwork could be high risk and there was no excuse for omitting important safety processes.

"Having a competent person inspect formwork before a concrete pour begins is a crucial step designed to avoid exactly this kind of disastrous scenario," Mr Jenkin said.

"In this case two workers were injured and it could very easily have been much, much worse."

To prevent falls when working with formwork employers should:

• Ensure a competent person produces a formwork design capable of supporting the expected dynamic and static loads.
• Have systems in place to formally sign off a formwork deck as structurally sound, complete and safe for other trade workers to use as a work platform.
• Provide employees undertaking construction work with site specific training, including the onsite risks associated with formwork decks.
• Ensure High Risk Construction Work is not performed unless a Safe Work Method Statement is prepared and followed.
• Use a fall arrest system, such as a catch platform or safety nets.