Fulton Electrical Services Pty Ltd, based in the Melbourne suburb of Boronia, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to failing to provide and maintain safe systems of work under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Prosecutor Michael Petrowski said two people working for the company were installing solar panels on a roof 2.4m high in Shepparton on February 16, 2024, without appropriate safety measures in place.
The workers weren’t wearing harnesses, an extension ladder to the roof wasn’t secure, and no Safe Work Method Statement had been filled out, Mr Petrowski told the court.
The court heard the base of the roof was 2.4m off the ground, but went up to a slant of 3.2m.
Safety measures must be in place when workers are working at a height of 2m or above.
A WorkSafe officer inspected the site after getting an anonymous report from the public, and told the owner to fix the issues.
Mr Petrowski said there was no fall protection at the site, and one of the workers on the roof was an apprentice, and therefore more vulnerable.
“Safety measures should be paramount at all times,” Mr Petrowski said.
The court was told there were guard rails in place and a SWMS filled out when the WorkSafe officer came back 30 minutes later.
Fulton Electrical Services’ defence barrister Nicholas Goodfellow said his client accepted responsibility for the offence, and instantly rectified the issues.
He said the height of the roof where someone could fall from wasn’t much higher than 2m; the height people are required to use safety measures for.
Mr Goodfellow told the court his client had safety equipment such as harnesses and scaffolding, but made the decision to not use it due to the height of the roof.
His only mistake was to not install it on the day, and had gone through a “labour-intensive and extensive process for a small company” to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.
Magistrate Simon Zebrowski said it was “a negative thing” to have all the correct equipment at the site and not use it, and the company was lucky the outcome wasn’t more serious.
“You thought, ‘she’ll be right, mate’, but that’s how people end up with broken necks and become paraplegics,” Mr Zebrowski said.
“These sort of rationalisations put people at risk.
“All it takes is one misstep for someone to fall off a roof.”
The company was fined $5000 without conviction, and ordered to pay legal costs of $4211.
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