Billyard Homes Pty Limited got sent to the courtroom a while back due to one of their contractors, one of the many plasterers in Sydney, suffering a head injury after experiencing a 2.5m fall in a West Pennant Hills building site.
The Dural-based company lost the prosecution, and has been fine $60,000 plus the accompanying legal costs, on the verdict of having failed to take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of the worker that ended up suffering a dangerous brain injury back in June of 2015.
Matt Kean, the Better Regulation Minister, stated that Billyard Homes was the primary contractor at the building site where Yin Peng Zhang, fell into an unguarded hole at 6 Yarralumla Way, West Pennant Hills, Sydney.
According to the Sydney Court District, Mr. Zhang was working on an upper level of the construction site, plastering the nail holes in the construction, on June 29,2015, when he unfortunately fell down into an unguarded hole and straight into the ground floor below.
The SCD, according to Mr. Kean, heard that Mr. Zhang sustained several severe injuries, including major damage to his brain, which resulted in him being unable to either work or continue his education.
Court documentation on Mr. Zhang shows that he has been in Australia, working as one of the many plasterers in Sydney, via a student visa complimented by work allowances, and had been in the country since December of 2013. The documentations say that Mr. Zhang suffered sever trauma to the frontal areas of the brain, as well as other head injuries as a result of his fall.
According to Mr. Kean, the investigation, conducted by SafeWork, had discovered that the company had failed to take the necessary safety precautions as the scaffolding in the area was not inspected, nor was it ensured that fall prevention measures were set in the site.
Mr. Kean says that, sadly, eight people have already died in Sydney in work-related falls in 2017. He says that not only are they deadly, but anyone who survives might end up severely disadvantaged, like Mr. Zhang. Kean has expressed his intention to avoid any incident like this.
A Billyard Homes rep went to the court and pleaded guilty on behalf on the company under the jurisdiction of Judge David Russell, who then imposed the $60,000 fine on the third week of November.
