The director of a shed building company has become the first person to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment under WA’s workplace safety and health laws.

Director of MT Sheds (WA) Pty Ltd – Mark Thomas Withers – was yesterday sentenced in the Esperance Magistrates Court to two years and two months’ imprisonment following the 2020 death of a young worker and the serious injury of another.

He is to serve eight months of the sentence immediately, with the remaining 18 months suspended for 12 months. He was also fined $2250 for operating a crane without the appropriate licence.

MT Sheds and Mr Withers pleaded guilty to a total of seven separate charges including charges in relation to the death of Jake Williams and serious injuries to Fraser Pinchin in March last year.

The charges included one of gross negligence against MT Sheds, for which the company was fined $550,000.

Mr Withers pleaded guilty to a charge that the company’s gross negligence offence occurred with his consent or was attributable to his neglect. It was on this charge that Mr Withers was sentenced to imprisonment.

Other charges were that neither Mark Withers nor either of the two employees involved in the incident held High Risk Work Licences for work they were performing, and that MT Sheds allowed Jake Williams to do construction work when he did not hold a Construction Induction Training Certificate (“white card”).

MT Sheds was fined a total of $55,000 for these breaches of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations.

Record fine since crackdown

The fines are the highest under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, following the McGowan Government’s increase in penalties for breaches of the workplace safety laws in 2018.

The term of imprisonment of two years and two months is the longest term of imprisonment ever imposed for a work safety and health offence in Australia, and the eight month immediate term of imprisonment is also the longest immediate term ever imposed for a work safety and health offence in Australia.

WorkSafe WA Commissioner Darren Kavanagh said today that culpability for a work-related death did not get much worse than in this case.

“Mr Withers completely failed in every sense to provide a safe workplace for his employees, and as a consequence a young man lost his life and a family lost a loved one,” he said.

“The State Government is committed to improving workplace safety laws, including ensuring that significant penalties are available to provide incentive to comply with these laws and ensure that community expectations are met.

“Even so, there are no winners in situations like these.”

For further information about industrial manslaughter or any other WHS policy matter, contact [email protected]