South Australian crane operator Adelaide Ship Construction International (ASCI) has been slapped with a $13,500 fine for ignoring three prohibition notices issued by WorkSafe South Australia (SA).
Two notices were issued in 2006 to ASCI after SafeWork SA inspectors had found that workers, including ASCI boss, Joe Glamocak, had been operating a crane and an elevated work platform (EWP) without holding the required certificates of competency.
ASCI was later issued a third notice over its failure to maintain logs for the EWP which inspectors had tagged "do not use". On returning to the site a day later, inspectors found two workers operating the same machinery without harnesses. Glamocak admitted at the time he had removed the tags.
Glamocak said at the hearing he was not aware that certificates of competency were required to operate the crane, and initially claimed he was being victimised by the government.
"In my view this displays a surprising level of ignorance, especially from a managing director of a company that at one stage employed over 100 employees and which has trained over 70 apprentices," said Justice Lieschke in his judgement.
ASCI was awarded a 10 per cent discount for belatedly pleading guilty to the charges, however it was ordered to pay an additional $1,300 in fees.
