On 4 April 2025, a company specialising in designing and installing shade solutions, and its sole director, were sentenced in the Brisbane Magistrates Court for breaching section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) (‘the Act’). The company pleaded guilty to failing to comply with its primary duty to ensure workers’ health and safety, thereby exposing them to the risk of death or serious injury. The officer pleaded guilty to failing to exercise due diligence to ensure the company complied with its duty, thereby exposing workers to the risk of death or serious injury.

In December 2021 a worker engaged by a subcontractor was seriously injured when the awning he was assisting with installing in the courtyard area of a Hotel in Brisbane collapsed, striking him as it fell and causing him to fall off his ladder and to the ground. He suffered significant fractures to his right arm, and lacerations to his right shoulder which required surgery to insert a plate. The defendant company had been engaged to supply and install the retractable awning. A project manager working for the defendant company attended the Hotel on multiple occasions to take measurements, designed the custom welded aluminum brackets to mount the awning on and arranged for them to be fabricated. The project manager neglected to have the bracket design certified by a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (“RPEQ”). The defendant company subsequently engaged a sole trader to install the awning as per the design and provided all required materials for the installation to the sole trader, including the plan, fixings and instructions. The awning weighed around 620 kilograms.

The mounting system (designed by the defendant company) provided inadequate support to prevent the awning from collapsing. The primary control for the management of the risk was for the defendant company to ensure the mounting system provided adequate support to prevent the awning from collapse, and ensuring the design of the mounting brackets had been certified by an RPEQ. The defendant officer failed to exercise due diligence to ensure that the defendant company complied with its health and safety duty by failing to take reasonable steps to gain an understanding of the risk posed by the installation of the awning and ensuring resources and processes were available for use, and used by the defendant company, to ensure the health and safety of workers. Post-incident, the defendant company took many steps, including revising the drawings for the awning structure support system, ensuring RPEQ certification and arranging for new brackets to be manufactured.

In sentencing, Magistrate O’Callaghan found that there was an obvious risk of serious injury or death, and the probability of it was high given the flawed design and lack of control measures, that it was easily avoidable and the controls were simple, inexpensive and entirely within the defendant’s control. Her Honour accepted the prosecution submission that the degree of blameworthiness of the defendant company was high, given it was responsible for designing the fundamentally flawed brackets, and that it was not momentary (in that the project manager had spent much time designing the bracket). Her Honour also noted that the offending of the defendant officer was serious, and did demonstrate ignorance as to hazard identification and controls. Her Honour also had regard to the serious injury to the worker, and the significant (and ongoing) impact upon his physical, economic and emotional wellbeing, together with multiple comparable cases to which she was referred.

Her Honour accepted that each defendant was remorseful, had no prior convictions, cooperated with the investigation and was otherwise a good corporate citizen who contributed and performed extensive charity work, and had implemented measures to reduce the risk (although noted the extent of that mitigation is diminished to some extent as credit should not be given for something which should have already been done).

Her Honour fined the defendant company $70,000, and the officer $5,000, together with making a Training Order for the officer, requiring him to complete 2 x training courses in both due diligence and risk assessment within 6 months. No convictions were recorded.

OWHSP contact: enquiries@owhsp.qld.gov.au