Lend Lease under investigation over roof fall

By Nick Toscano
Updated July 29 2014 - 3:08am, first published July 28 2014 - 5:06pm

Australian building giant Lend Lease is being investigated for safety breaches after a worker plummeted several storeys from the roof of a construction site at the Monash Medical Centre.

The worker, aged in his 20s, fell from scaffolding on the roof of the $84 million research centre building project in Clayton last Tuesday.

He suffered serious injuries to his head and lower body, and was treated by doctors from the hospital before paramedics arrived.

The worker was taken to The Alfred hospital, where he has been for almost a week. He is in a stable condition.

Work resumed on the site on Thursday after being suspended for two days due to the incident.

The Victorian WorkCover Authority has launched an investigation to determine whether Lend Lease's worksite complied with safety standards.

A Lend Lease spokeswoman confirmed that a subcontractor employee was injured during a fall, and said the company was working closely with WorkCover investigators.

"The safety of our workers and the community is the number one priority for Lend Lease," she said.

Six safety breaches relating to major falls – through scaffolding, ceiling space and ladders – were identified among more than 60 serious incidents on Lend Lease sites in an internal company report obtained by Fairfax Media in April.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is auditing all Lend Lease worksites under a national safety blitz.

Lend Lease chief executive Steve McCann recently called the union a ''disgrace'' and accused it of raising safety concerns on building sites as a distraction from the royal commission on union governance and corruption.

Union state secretary John Setka said it needed to ensure safety of workers following evidence of poor safety practices at Lend Lease sites.

"Their own leaked report ... showed they had 60 major health and safety violations in the past year alone," he said.

"This incident comes during a period when Lend Lease seems committed to watering down safety protections on their sites."

The site of the latest incident – the six-storey Monash translational research facility project – is bankrolled by $71 million of federal government funding.

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