Homeowner Fined for OHS Violation
Normally, a $1,000 OHS fine wouldn’t rate its own item in the CASES section of our Month in Review. But this case is a bit unusual, not because of the offence, i.e., failure to ensure use of fall protection by all workers exposed to risk of falling 3 metres or more, but who committed it. The defendant in this case was a homeowner working on the roof of his own house with his wife and a friend. But as domestic as the setting may have been, the homeowner was still acting as an employer as far as the OHS laws were concerned [Paul Curren, Govt. Press Release, Oct. 16, 2017].