Published: 18 February 2025
Minoan Constructions Pty Ltd was sentenced in the Melbourne County Court on Friday after pleading guilty to a single charge of failing to ensure that a workplace under its management or control was safe and without risks to health.
The court heard the family-operated company was building 10 commercial units at a Cheltenham construction site.
The 69-year-old man was not employed or contracted by the company, but was a family member who helped lay flooring and install timber guard railing on the mezzanine levels of the units.
To access these areas, he and others used unsecured ladders resting against the steel frames of the mezzanine levels. They worked while standing on the ladders or near unprotected edges of the mezzanine floors.
As the man was climbing down an unsecured ladder, it began to move, causing him to fall more than four metres to the ground. He died at the scene.
The court heard that it was reasonably practicable for Minoan Constructions to have reduced the risk of falls by providing a temporary work platform, such as a mobile scaffold; installing engineered guard railing on the internal and external sides of each mezzanine level; or providing appropriate staircases to connect the ground floor to the mezzanine level.
WorkSafe Executive Director of Health and Safety Sam Jenkin said health and safety should be a priority for everyone in the workplace, particularly when it came to well-understood dangers such as working at heights.
"When working with family members, there can be a dangerous tendency to relax safety standards. But fall risks don’t discriminate," Mr Jenkin said.
"To see another life lost to such a well-documented and preventable risk – one that we have extensive safety information and resources for – is both painful and frustrating."
"WorkSafe will continue to prosecute employers who fail to protect the health and safety of everybody at their workplace."
To prevent falls from height employers should implement the highest possible measures from the five levels in the hierarchy of controls:
- Level 1 Eliminate the risk by, where practicable, doing all or some of the work on the ground or from a solid construction.
- Level 2 Use a passive fall prevention device such as scaffolds, perimeter screens, guardrails, safety mesh or elevating work platforms.
- Level 3 Use a positioning system, such as a travel-restraint system, to ensure employees work within a safe area.
- Level 4 Use a fall arrest system, such as a harness, catch platform or safety nets, to limit the risk of injuries in the event of a fall.
- Level 5 Use a fixed or portable ladder, or implement administrative controls.