The offending related to work undertaken by employees of the Labour Hire Company to clean solar panels on the roof of the Operator’s shop. One of the workers fell about 8 metres through a skylight to a concrete floor below and suffered serious injuries.
On 24 February 2026, the New South Wales District Court delivered its decision on penalties. Both companies were fined. As they share common shareholders and directors, the case highlights that:
- where a person holds shares in multiple companies, the financial impact of fines on that shareholder is magnified if two or more of their companies are involved in the offending; and
- if the directors of two or more companies are personally prosecuted following a safety incident, a single person holding multiple directorships could face multiple prosecutions arising from the same event.
Overview
The Operator operates a livestock and abattoir factory in New South Wales and a shop adjacent to the factory. It is a PCBU – a person conducting a business of undertaking. The Operator engaged the Labour Hire Company to provide workers. The Labour Hire Company was also a PCBU. Both the companies have common shareholders and directors – a father and a son.
In 2021, three workers were instructed to clean solar panels installed on the roof of the shop. The workers were told to:
- work between the rows of the solar panels;
- not go within two metres of the edge of the roof; and
- not go near the skylights, as the Perspex covers were unable to support their weight.
The work was supervised intermittently by a person (not one of the directors) who was performing other duties at the same time. At about 1:30pm a worker fell 8 metres through a skylight onto the concrete floor below. He sustained serious injuries, including head and brain trauma, and remains highly dependent on others for care and assistance with activities of daily living.
The guilty pleas
Prior to the incident, the Operator and the Labour Hire Company did not:
- reference the cleaning of solar panels within the induction and policy documents;
- have an established documented system of work for cleaning the solar panels;
- implement the requirement for documented risk assessments for the task;
- make themselves aware of the multiple guidance materials available for working at heights, including Code of Practice materials;
- prohibit or prevent workers from working on the roof in circumstances where there were no permanent protective covers over the skylights or permanent edge protection to the roof; and
- provide permanent protective covers for the skylights and/or permanent edge protection to the roof (or require the Operator to provide them, in the case of the Labour Hire Company).
The Operator and the Labour Hire Company pleaded guilty to Category 2 offences for breaching their respective duties under section 19(1) of the NSW Act to take reasonably practicable steps to protect the health and safety of workers (namely, preventing work on the roof and installing, or requiring to be installed, permanent skylight covers and edge protection).
The Operator was also convicted of a Category 2 offence for breaching section 20 of the NSW Act because, as the person with management or control of the workplace, it failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the workplace was without risks to the health and safety of any person.
Following the incident the Operator took steps including:
- reviewing and updating the safe work procedures, including a Safe Work Method Statement for the task of cleaning the solar panels and working at heights;
- arranging for all managers to receive refresher training on their WHS responsibilities;
- restricting access to the roof and arranging a permit system for entry;
- engaging an external consultant to review WHS policy and procedure documents;
- installing permanent galvanised sheet metal covers over the skylights;
- engaging a contractor to install permanent guard rails and anchor points on the roof;
- developing a height safety system protocol that includes the use of harnesses whilst working at height; and
- engaging an external counselling support service for its workers.
The Fines
The Operator was fined a total of $320,000 for two offences (reflecting reductions for its early guilty pleas and a further reduction for the overlap between the two offences).
The Labour Hire Company was fined $270,000 for its single offence conviction, including a reduction for its early guilty plea.
Our views
Although a decision of a single District Court Judge in New South Wales, we consider that the legal principles would be generally applicable in Western Australia given the substantial similarities between the NSW Act and the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA).
In New South Wales and Western Australia, PCBUs and their officers are not able to hold indemnity insurance to cover fines issued for workplace health and safety breaches.
Accordingly, if a person is a shareholder of two or more companies each fined for its involvement in a breach, the financial impact on that shareholder is magnified.
More significantly, if a person is a director of two or more companies involved in a breach, the risk of multiple personal prosecutions increases. Although in this case the directors themselves were not prosecuted, their companies were – a different prosecutorial decision could have produced a markedly different outcome for the directors personally.
If you would like more information about this case or assistance with any workplace health and safety matters, please contact our Employment, Workplace Relations and Safety team on (08) 9321 0522.
