Salini Australia takes workers’ health and safety very seriously. It is a top priority for the company on every construction site where it operates.
In this very unfortunate case, Salini Australia has accepted responsibility and expressed its remorse for the terrible incident that resulted in serious harm to an employee. It sincerely regrets the pain suffered by the employee and his family, and continues to strengthen its health and safety measures to the maximum.
The SI-NRW joint-venture responsible for the Forrestfield-Airport Link reviewed and improved the processes and procedures in this regard, and provided additional training to workers involved in the project.
SI-NRW endeavours to instil a strong safety culture across the project to ensure everyone gets home safe every day. Training under the SAFER programme and other relevant industry training is ongoing. More than 6,000 people have been trained and upskilled as a result of its redoubled efforts.
The incident occurred in October 2017 at its Bayswater construction site during the relocation and installation of a 10m-long time-lapse camera pole.
The boom of the crane moving the pole either came into contact with or came within close proximity to 132,000-volt overhead power lines, causing an electrical flashover to occur.
A rigger who was standing on the ground holding the pole and tag line received a severe electric shock and sustained electrical burns.
Support was provided through weekly visits to the employee and a financial contribution was made to assist his family with immediate costs. The Joint Venture also provided assistance to the employee in retraining for different skills that could be utilised in a new occupation.
Counselling was offered to all workers that were affected by the incident and to all workers on the Bayswater site. The counselling was available the day following the incident and remained available for at least a month.
