A Halls Head electrical company has been fined over $21,000 after an apprentice nearly died from an electric shock.
Xtra Solutions Pty Ltd (EC12559) trading as Xtra Electrical pleaded guilty to two offences in the Mandurah Magistrates Court this month.
The court heard, a 19-year-old second-year apprentice and his supervising electrician attended a commercial premises in January 2020 to disconnect and remove an electric hot water unit.
While on a phone call, the supervisor directed the apprentice towards a kitchen cabinet where the 19-year-old started to cut and disconnect the wiring on the hot water unit inside.
Shortly after, the apprentice received an electric shock of up to 240 volts and was unable to let go of the electrified cable in his hand for at least 30 seconds.
The supervising electrician and property tenant pulled him away from the cabinet area and began CPR.
Paramedics arrived within seven minutes to find the apprentice had stopped breathing and had no pulse, but fortunately they were able to resuscitate him with a defibrillator.
An investigation by Building and Energy found a circuit breaker that supplied power to cabling in the cabinet was left on during the work, resulting in some cables remaining energised or “live”.
Xtra Solutions Pty Ltd was fined $20,000 for ineffective supervision and a further $1500 because the apprentice did not hold an electrician's training licence, which was required for the work he carried out at the property.
Magistrate Leanne Atkins said the apprentice had been “brought back, in effect, from the dead” and the young man no longer wanted to work in the electrical industry.
WA’s Director of Energy Safety Saj Abdoolakhan said the case was a confronting reminder about why specific rules and responsibilities are in place when working with electrical apprentices.
“This incident could have easily been a tragedy for a young man at the start of his career,” he said.
“These laws are in place to ensure employers do the right thing by their apprentices and keep them safe. It is unacceptable for an employer to place a trainee in such a dangerous situation by failing to ensure the installation was not live, as required by law.
“I urge the industry to ensure they isolate and test all electrical installations to verify they are properly de-energised prior to anyone working on them.”
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