St Hilliers No Angels

A 58-year-old building worker is recovering from a fall at a Sydney construction site a week after a foreman was writing the word “bullshit” on the minutes of a safety audit.

Armando Quezada, a steel fixer from Fairfield, was taken to Mona Vale Hospital after falling more than three metres onto concrete at a St Hilliers site in Mona Vale.

The incident came a week after CFMEU officials warned management of a number of fall risks, including a lack of hand rails, during a audit with the site's safety committee.

The CFMEU obtained minutes from the inspection, written by the site foreman, with the word "bullshit" written next to issues raised.

"We carried out these inspections with a degree of integrity, and the last thing we need is to see these notes," CFMEU North Shore organiser Tom Mitchell.

CFMEU safety officer Dick Whitehead said the St Hilliers sat on its hands on the issues raised.

"We've got an increasing amount of employers paying scant regard to safety issues being raised by unions," he said.

"I've been on the phone all morning arguing about safety with a number of employers."

Whitehead said it seemed employers were feeling emboldened by recent anti-union construction industry laws.

"This is only going to lead to more accidents - and tragically more deaths."

He said St Hilliers was notorious for taking complaints to the union-busting Building Industry Taskforce.

The taskforce has since been beefed up as the Australian Building and Construction Industry Commission, with sweeping powers to interrogate building workers and impose thousands of dollars in fines for industrial action.

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Last modified: Thursday, 17-Nov-2005 14:24:39 EST