In April 2017, the young girl was in the outside play area of a childcare centre in Preston, Victoria when she leaned her right hand against a window and the glass broke, causing serious lacerations to her wrist.

Goodstart Early Learning Ltd, which owned and operated the centre and about 650 other childcare facilities around Australia, was charged with breaching section 26 of the State OHS Act in failing, as the entity that managed or controlled the centre, to ensure all window glass within one metre of the floor or ground level was “Grade A” safety glass, to reduce the risk of injury.

It was also charged with breaching its section-23 duty to “other persons”, in failing to implement recommendations from a July 2016 third-party audit to install safety glass in windows within a metre of the floor or ground.

After the incident, WorkSafe Victoria issued a safety alert, stressing that the Australian Standard for selecting and installing glass in buildings included procedures for selecting glass subjected to wind loading, human impact and special applications like overhead glazing or balustrades.

The regulator said that after the incident, it visited several early childhood services and identified several windows and doors with glass panels or inserts presenting safety risks, where, for example, fixed panels could be mistaken for doorways or openings.

It said that in addition to complying with the Standard, duty holders should engage glaziers to audit all windows and glass doors in the workplace and ensure they complied with marking requirements, like the use of opaque or translucent strips that alerted people to the presence of glass.

Employers should also fit safety glass in areas prone to human contact, it recommended.

WorkSafe subsequently accepted an enforceable undertaking (EU) from Goodstart, in lieu of prosecution, where it committed $225,000 to OHS activities like providing officer due diligence training and other targeted OHS management training to employees.

It also committed to fully funding an OHS and return-to-work conference for the early learning and education sector.

According to the EU document, Goodstart responded to the April 2017 incident by engaging a glazing service to audit 173 of its childcare facilities in Victoria, and installed safety glass in all at-risk windows at a cost of nearly $1.4 million.

It conducted a workshop for facility managers, who were given a demonstration of safety glass and learnings from the Preston incident, and developed internal training resources on managing glass hazards, the document said.

Goodstart also added a mandatory question to its audit tool on whether windows within a certain height of the floor were fitted with safety glass or safety film, and implemented procedures allowing OHS concerns to be elevated to senior management, bypassing ordinary reporting channels.

For more information and support for HSW consulting, training and other support please contact us on 03 8662 5333 or hsw@victorianchamber.com.au to discuss your needs.