Advanced Buildings and Restorations (ABR) is a National Company with offices across the Eastern Seaboard of Australia. We operate in the insurance building space, an industry with a heavy reliance on subcontractors and exposure to high risk. The reliance on subcontractors provides an added complexity in managing WHS and ensuring that a safe workplace is provided.
ABR experienced this complexity firsthand in February 2019, when we engaged subcontractors to undertake roofing work on two industrial buildings. The job required the workers to remove asbestos roof sheets and replace them with Colorbond metal sheets. The roof of the building gave way whilst workers were undertaking the removal of asbestos roof sheets. Four workers fell approximately four meters from the roof. Two of the workers who fell from the roof were injured and required medical attention.
Following the incident, ABR was faced with the confronting realisation that our processes had placed workers at serious risk. Whilst we always took WHS seriously, like many other employers, we never thought this would happen to us. ABR faced another dark day when we learned the fate of the incident and SafeWork NSW advised us they would be prosecuting. Facing a fine in the vicinity of $600.000,00 along with massive reputational damage and a potential impact of loss of work due to a WHS prosecution, ABR engaged in an exercise of exploring the option of an Enforceable Undertaking (EU).
The first crucial step of entering into an EU, is getting the commitment of the business to the EU. We were fortunate to receive backing from the entire business starting from our Directors, CEO and the ELT to all workers. We all saw the benefit of the EU option and the impact this will have on the business. This commitment gave us the confidence to approach SafeWork and request an EU, which was granted subject to a comprehensive set of strategies.
In building the strategies, the Safety group brainstormed the main aims of an EU and considered ‘what do we want to achieve?’. After careful consideration and an in-depth analysis of the requirements, the team arrived at the following desired outcomes of the EU:
We then progressed our work in developing the final high-level strategies, being the following:
The proposed strategies resulted in Advanced Buildings (NSW) Pty Ltd entering into an Enforceable Undertaking on Thursday 20 April 2023 with SafeWork NSW.
While the initial incident in February 2019 resulted in significant injuries to several workers and could potentially have had much more serious consequences, the option to enter into an EU agreement has already resulted in many positive outcomes for our business. In the first 6 months of our EU, our workplace is starting to see the benefits from the robust strategies we have commenced and it is our hope that the improvements being undertaken at ABR will allow other businesses’ to learn and benefit from our experience, and this will subsequently improve the safety of workers more widely across the industry.
Author – Adam Eyles
OUR SECTORS
ARA Building Services is a versatile provider of building maintenance and remedial construction solutions, serving a diverse range of sectors including commercial, retail, government and education.
