The NSW District Court has recently fined $900,000 to Ganellan, a Sydney based builder, in relation to a scaffolding collapse at a construction site which caused the tragic death of Christopher Cassaniti and seriously injured Kahled Wehbe.
The resurfacing of this matter after almost 2 years has sparked debate as to whether industrial manslaughter legislation should be introduced in NSW and concerns raises issues in relation to building & construction, work health & safety and criminal law.
Current Landscape
Ganellan was the principal contractor at the Macquarie Park site and had engaged Synergy Scaffolding Service Pty Limited to design, erect, maintain and dismantle scaffolding at the site. The scaffolding in place at the time had been gradually dismantled over a period of time and it had mostly been removed at the time of the accident. Notwithstanding the scaffolding was mostly removed, it was still being used by workers at the site and was overloaded.
