Working at Heights Prosecutions Doubled in 2025. The Courts Mean Business

WorkSafe charged 67 employers with fall-related offences in 2025. That is more than twice the number from 2024, and the fines tell the same story. Total penalties hit $3.75 million last year, also more than double the year before. The courts are not slowing down.

Falls from height remain Australia’s second-leading cause of workplace fatalities, accounting for 13% of all deaths on the job. Fatality numbers from 2022 to 2024 ran 30% above the five-year average. These are not statistics from a problem being solved. They are numbers from a problem getting worse.

If you own or manage a building where tradespeople need roof access, this is your reality. The question is no longer whether regulators are watching. They are. The question is whether your roof is set up to keep people safe when the work happens.

There is a particular kind of stress that comes with managing a commercial or strata building. You are responsible for everything from the basement to the roof, and most of what sits above the parapet line is invisible to you day-to-day. But it is not invisible to the people who have to get up there to service the air conditioning, clear the drains, or inspect the membrane. And it is not invisible to WorkSafe when something goes wrong.

Building owners and facilities managers often tell us they assumed the contractor would manage their own safety. That is partly true. But the duty of care does not sit entirely with the person doing the work. If your roof does not have appropriate, compliant access infrastructure, you carry real exposure as the building owner. The prosecution numbers from 2025 make that plain.

The underlying principle here is simple. Every tradesperson who climbs onto your roof has a family to go home to. They deserve to work on a roof that has been properly thought through, properly designed, and properly maintained. That is not just a compliance obligation dressed up as a value. It is genuinely what the obligation is built on.

At Anchored Height Safety, we see this gap often. A building has some anchor points, maybe installed years ago, but nobody has checked whether they are still certifiable, whether they are positioned correctly for the actual tasks being performed, or whether the system design reflects the real hazards on that specific roof. We understand the position this puts building managers in. You are not the height safety specialist. You should not have to be. But you do need a system that works, and you need someone who will tell you honestly whether yours does.

That is what we do. We design, install, certify, and maintain height safety systems for commercial rooftops across Victoria and beyond. Our approach starts with a risk-based assessment of your building. We look at what tasks are performed on the roof, how frequently, who performs them, what the fall hazards are, and what the appropriate control measures are for your specific situation. The system we design is not a generic solution. It is the right solution for your building, based on actual risk.

A well-designed system typically includes anchor points and static lines designed and installed to their relevant standards such as AS/NZS 1891.x and AS5532, and clearly defined travel restraint and fall arrest zones appropriate to the work being carried out. Our documentation is thorough. Every system we install comes with a record that tells your trades exactly what is on the roof, what each component is rated for, and when it was last inspected. They arrive prepared and work with confidence.

Annual inspection and recertification keeps your system in that condition. AS 1891 requires it, Safe Work Australia recommends it, and the 2025 prosecution data shows what happens when it does not happen. An uninspected system is not a compliant system, regardless of how good it looked when it was first installed.

When your height safety system is designed correctly, installed to standard, and inspected on schedule, you are in a very different position. Your trades can do their work safely. You have documentation that demonstrates your duty of care. Your insurer has evidence of compliance. And if WorkSafe ever came knocking, you have a clear record showing you took the obligation seriously.

When the system is inadequate, outdated, or uninspected, the risk runs in every direction. A tradesperson can be injured or killed. You face prosecution, fines, and civil liability. Your insurer can void your cover on the basis of non-compliance. Nobody who ends up in that position wishes they had skipped the annual inspection to save a few hundred dollars.

The 2025 numbers are a clear signal. Courts are not treating height safety breaches as administrative paperwork failures. They are treating them as the serious safety failures they are.

If you are not certain your roof is compliant, now is the time to find out. Call us on 03 9555 3586, email us at sales@anchored.com.au, or visit anchored.com.au to book a roof assessment and find out exactly where you stand.