A building company has pleaded guilty to two breaches of workplace laws in Melbourne’s Magistrate’s Court.

 

The company could face a fine of up to $1 million for a 2009 incident where a scaffolding collapsed onto a busy Melbourne street after it was heavily overloaded and not properly constructed.

 

The incident resulted in three bricklayers being injured, one of them seriously, when five levels of scaffolding collapsed onto the nearby street.

 

The court heard WorkSafe Victoria inspectors visited the site and found that the scaffolding was supporting an estimated 6,000 bricks, which weighed the platform two to three times beyond the safe limit.

 

The investigation also found that the bricks were not distributed evenly across the scaffolding, significantly contributing to the severity of the collapse.