Brisbane-based enineering company Whybird & Partners Pty Ltd has been fined $15,000 after a concrete slab collapsed during the construction of the Indooroopilly Shopping Centre in June 2004.
The company pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Industrial Magistrates Court on 22 February to breaching the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 by failing to ensure other persons are not exposed to risks to their health and safety arising out of the conduct of the employer's business or undertaking.
The court heard that 22 workers escaped death or serious injury when a concrete slab on the third level collapsed under them and fell to the ground.
The Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigation revealed that the level three concrete slab had not been supported by an adequate propping system once the formwork had been removed.
The court was also told the damaged slab area was removed and reinstated to the altered design. The building was completed without further incident and is now occupied as a shopping centre.
Industrial Magistrate Mr W H Ehrich ordered the company to pay investigation costs of $1,500. No conviction was recorded. The prosecution was brought by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, a division of the Department of Industrial Relations.
