Hansen Yuncken enters into $1.7 million enforceable undertaking

Commercial building company Hansen Yuncken recently entered an enforceable undertaking worth just over $1.7 million, following a fatal incident that occurred on 16 September 2019.

In the incident, a worker suffered fatal injuries after two large steel fire sprinkler pipes fell from the side of a B-double trailer during unloading.

It is alleged Hansen Yuncken contravened sections 19(1), 20(2) and 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011.

The alleged contravention does not appear to be a section 31 Reckless conduct category 1 offence, which if were the case, would preclude the undertaking from being accepted.

The company entered an enforceable undertaking which includes:

• The establishment of a ‘Centre for Construction Safety and Wellbeing’ through an industry partnership with the University of Newcastle.
• Supporting the completion of two PhD research studies into construction industry site management, health and safety leadership and assurance, including assessing the effectiveness of the safety management learning interventions developed as part of the undertaking.
• Supporting a post-doctoral fellow in supporting the objectives of the Centre for Construction Safety and Wellbeing. This includes conducting research and using insights from the enforceable undertaking to improve the health and safety components within the undergraduate engineering curriculum, for the benefit of the industry at large.
• Development of health and safety learning animations on the following topics: transport and deliveries, traffic management, cranes and lifting, underground and overhead services, mobile plant, working at height, and electrical supply and equipment.
• Development of a worker insight facilitation simulated coaching experience in a virtual environment to train site supervisors on how to facilitate a worker insight, enabling this technique to be used across the construction industry.
• Development of a technology-enabled application for worker insights that will harness artificial intelligence to capture worker insights, enable trend analysis and identify industry-wide hazards at scale.
• Funding videography production and live stream services for the International Day of Mourning memorial service events for three years.
• Publishing a journal article on best practice approaches to supporting families in the event of workplace incidents.
• Conducting a roadshow of education and awareness events on lessons learnt from the incident, incident response, the development and implementation of the HY work zone, worker insight tools, learning animations, and lessons from the research undertaken through the Centre for Construction Safety and Wellbeing.
• Appointment of an enforceable undertaking digital initiatives project manager.
• Appointment of a dedicated enforceable undertaking project coordinator.