The life-threatening risk that injured a young ACT worker was known "but nothing was done about it", the victim's mother has said.
"As a parent whose son was so severely injured, that's frustrating," Jacqueline Sweeting told media outside the ACT Industrial Court on Wednesday.
Ms Sweeting's now-23-year-old son was brutally crushed by a racking system not secured to the ground, and therefore unsafe to use, while working at Belconnen's TLE Electrical in early 2022.
The woman previously said the victim's injuries, including a fractured skull, multiple face fractures, having three teeth knocked out, and facial lacerations requiring dozens of staples, made him "almost unrecognisable".
"Surviving was only the beginning," she said in June in a victim impact statement.
But Ms Sweeting said she was content with magistrate James Lawton convicting and fining her son's former employer, Metal Manufactures Pty Ltd, $375,000 for the work health and safety failure.
"I was very pleased to hear the magistrate's words. He understood all of the issues," she said.
The offending parent company is described in court documents as being "engaged in business or undertaking of sourcing and supplying electrical, data and communications, solar, lighting".
It operates about 400 sites around Australia under various names.
Anchoring failure
Metal Manufactures and Jack Platt, then-site manager of the Belconnen business, each previously admitted failing to comply with health and safety duties causing the risk of death or serious injury.
The charges were laid following a WorkSafe ACT investigation.
Platt was fined $7500 after informing workers like the victim not to use the unbolted racking but not taking adequate steps to prevent access to it.
"The racking was not installed to the relevant Australian standard, nor was it installed in line with the manufacturer's recommendations or the first defendant's own policies," the magistrate said.
"Fundamentally, the racking was not anchored to the floor and was not installed by a competent person."
When the victim used cable from the racking, weighing several hundreds of kilograms after being set up, the cable became jammed and the pull brought the racking down on his head.
No room for 'complacency or apathy' in workplaces
Ms Sweeting said her son, who is still undergoing medical and dental treatment to repair his injuries, was now getting on with his life.
"He has the benefit of youth - he's 23 years of age," the mother said.
"That's all we can ever do from an incident like this, is move forward."
She also told media 195 Australians had been killed due to injuries sustained in workplace accidents the year of the victim's incident.
"We are forever mindful of these people and their families, and the statistics remain appalling," Ms Sweeting said.
"Most Australians may be surprised by these figures but we just cannot allow complacency or apathy to creep into [work health and safety]. Every Australian deserves a healthy and safe workplace."
On Wednesday, ACT work health and safety commissioner Jacqueline Agius said she was pleased to see the convictions and penalties reflect the workplace safety failures.
"Today's sentencing sends a clear message to persons conducting a business or undertaking and, in this instance, a manager," she said.
"You must comply with your work health and safety obligations or you will be personally held to account.
"It is encouraging to see our courts appropriately penalising both the business and an individual responsible for these breaches."
Metal Manufactures was also ordered to pay $35,000 of WorkSafe ACT's legal costs and Platt was ordered to pay $10,000 for the same reason.
