Government of Western Australia | A concrete manufacturing company has been fined $580,000 (and ordered to pay $6,180 in costs) after a worker was seriously injured at its Neerabup concrete batching plant.
Ransberg Pty Ltd, trading as WA Premix, pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious harm to a worker, and was fined in the Joondalup Magistrates Court.
In December 2020, a worker at the plant suffered serious harm when a large waste pit gate fell onto him.
Waste products from the concrete mixing process are deposited into waste pits that are regularly drained and emptied.
These steel and concrete waste pits are four-walled boxes three metres wide by one point five metres high with a removable front wall weighing around two tonnes known as the waste pit gate.
The waste pit gate is held in place by four wedge pins that lock into fittings on the side wall of the pit. These pins were knocked out with a mallet once the gate was secured by a lifting chain attached to a raised front-end loader bucket.
The pit gate was then lifted by the front-end loader and stored safely beside the waste pits.
The emptying of the waste pits was considered to be a two-person job, but it was done by one person if no other workers were available.
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