Perth roofing company fined over tradie’s 5m skylight fall – WAtoday

A Perth roofing company has been slugged with a heavy fine after a tradiefell through a skylight and was seriously injured at one of its work sites.

The incident happened in September 2015 whenRound Table Roofing was hired byDeslinPty Ltd -trading as Roofing 2000 - to carry out roofing work at a building on Canning Highway in Bicton.

Worksafe WA said the 30-40-year-old building's roof was madeof steel beams covered with metal roofing sheets, with one half of portal frame construction, and a number of skylights. A new roof was to be placed overexisting sheet covering.

On the day the worker fell, Worksafe said tworoof plumbers were removing rusted metal roof sheets from the portal frame roof, while another roof plumber and a roof labourer worked tocleanupmetal offcuts and insulation that had been spread around the area.

Worksafe said sometime between 1pm and 2pm, the roof labourer stood on a roll ofloose insulation that was next to the edge of a skylight, lost his balanceand fell through, going five metres down to aconcrete floor below.

He sustainedmultiple fractures and other serious injuries, withWorkSafe WA Commissioner Lex McCulloch saying he was lucky not to have been killed.

"Over the past 10 years, 31 Western Australian workers have lost their lives as the result of work-related falls, five of these during the 2016/17 financial year," he said.

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"Add to this the number of workers who have sustained permanent and life-changing injuries in falls, and the size of the problem becomes apparent."

Round Table Roofing Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment in the FremantleMagistrates Court on Monday, and was fined$70 thousand dollars plus costs of $1369.

Mr McCullloch said the incident serves to remind workers about the need for rigorous safety systems when working at height.

"This incident involved the added hazard of fragile skylights for which a fall injury prevention system had not been put into place," he said.

"Where brittle or fragile roofing materials form any part of a roof, people accessing the roof need to be informed and be provided with a safe system of work along with instructions or training about the safe system of work to be used.

"The operations manager of Deslin Pty Ltd was fined $7500 over this incident back in June, providing a reminder that more than one party has responsibility for safety in a workplace, and that more than one entity can be charged over the same incident."

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Perth roofing company fined over tradie's 5m skylight fall - WAtoday