THE residential building company Lifestyle Homes (ACT) No.1 Pty Ltd has been hit with fines of $25,000 after it breached the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 at its residential construction site in Coombs last year. 

At a recent hearing the ACT Magistrates Court found that all six charges against Lifestyle Homes was true and recorded three convictions against the business. 

The breaches of the legislation were detected in October 2017 as part of a joint proactive inspection program by WorkSafe ACT and Safe Work NSW that focused on falls from heights and related to:

• failure to provide appropriate fall protection on stair voids and scaffolding;
• not providing safe electrical installations at the construction site;
• allowing someone to undertake high risk work without an appropriate high risk licence;
• failure to keep the workplace in a condition that allowed persons to safely enter and exit the site under normal work conditions or in an emergency;
• not having secure barriers installed on its scaffolding to prevent objects from falling off;
• not providing fall protection on internal stair voids to prevent persons from falling; and
• not ensuring accurate signage on the site fencing identifying the principal contractor and their contact details.

“It was fortunate that the breaches were detected as part of WorkSafe’s proactive inspection activity before someone was seriously hurt or killed,” says ACT Work Safety commissioner Greg Jones.

“Such non-compliance will not be tolerated by WorkSafe ACT and strong regulatory action will be taken where appropriate and proportionate, including court action.”