A Queensland company has been banned from tendering for Federal Government work for one month and a second company received a formal warning after Australian Building and Construction Commission investigations.

Industrial Relations Minister Michaela Cash has issued a one-month exclusion sanction against MCP (AUS) Pty Ltd.

It comes after a mobile concrete pump truck with a 60m boom toppled while working on the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing project.

The ABCC said that the concrete pump truck had been incorrectly set up, resulting in the boom overbalancing and the crane tipping over. No one was injured in the incident.

MCP pleaded guilty in the Toowoomba Magistrates’ Court to failing to comply with its health and safety duty under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and was ordered to pay a fine of $50,000, along with costs.

The building watchdog said MCP fully cooperated and took positive steps to remediate its conduct and show it had provided a measure of voluntary rectification.

The exclusion sanction is the first imposed under the Building Code 2016 for a contravention by a Code covered entity of health and safety laws. 

In her letter to MCP imposing the sanction, which will extend to June 23, Ms Cash stated:

“The Australian Government takes any work health and safety contraventions very seriously given the potential for tragic outcomes, including serious injury and death.

“While the fact that there were no injuries as a result of this particular incident weights against imposing a lengthy exclusion sanction, I am not satisfied that this, MCP’s cooperation with the ABC Commissioner or the steps taken to improve safety following the incident, render it inappropriate to impose any exclusion sanction at all.”

Formal warning for road construction company

Ms Cash also issued a formal warning to Queensland-based building company Intelligent Infrastructure Solutions Pty Ltd, also known as i2 Solutions, for its failure to pay subcontractors and breaches of security of payment laws.

The ABCC said the road construction company, which went into voluntary receivership in June last year, had left subcontractors out of pocket to the tune of $166,375.

It had failed to make on-time payments worth more than $1.19 million to contractors.

Prior to entering into administration, i2 Solutions operated in Queensland, NSW and Victoria on large road infrastructure projects.

ABCC Commissioner Stephen McBurney said the breaches of security of payment obligations had a serious and deleterious impact on the companies who had undertaken building work for which they were not paid or not paid on time.

“The imposition of a sanction by way of a formal warning is an important outcome, supported by the public interest, to deter others from similar conduct, to publicise the breaches in this case and to ensure the industry is made aware of the contraventions committed by i2 Solutions,” he said.

Union denounces ‘slap on the wrist’ penalties

CFMEU National Construction secretary Dave Noonan described the penalties as empty symbolism that would do nothing to address worker safety or ensure security of payments.

“The ABCC’s crowing about the successful prosecution of one subcontractor by the Queensland safety regulator while saying and doing nothing to hold Nexus to account for the host of failings on the (Toowoomba Second Range Crossing)project is typical of a regulator that is broken by design,” he said.

“The other builder sanctioned, i2 Solutions, was issued a formal warning by IR Minister Michaelia Cash over late or withheld payments on the M4 Smart Motorway project in NSW and the Logan Enhancement Project in Queensland.

“i2 Solutions went into receivership in 2020 owing money to subbies and having failed to make on-time payments of more than $1 million.”

“It is telling that the ABCC is now congratulating themselves for a slap on the wrist handed out to a subcontractor that has already gone broke while doing nothing to ensure subbies who are out of pocket are paid the money they are owed.”