A new national survey will gather evidence on how Australian scaffolders are recruited, trained and developed as the industry considers future qualifications and career pathways.
ScaffFest 2027 will bring international scaffolding championships, a trade exhibition and family entertainment to NAEC Stoneleigh in Warwickshire next July, Scaffmag can exclusively reveal.
A new national survey will gather evidence on how Australian scaffolders are recruited, trained and developed as the industry considers future qualifications and career pathways.
ScaffFest 2027 will bring international scaffolding championships, a trade exhibition and family entertainment to NAEC Stoneleigh in Warwickshire next July, Scaffmag can exclusively reveal.
A new national survey will gather evidence on how Australian scaffolders are recruited, trained and developed as the industry considers future qualifications and career pathways.
ScaffFest 2027 will bring international scaffolding championships, a trade exhibition and family entertainment to NAEC Stoneleigh in Warwickshire next July, Scaffmag can exclusively reveal.
A new national survey will gather evidence on how Australian scaffolders are recruited, trained and developed as the industry considers future qualifications and career pathways.
ScaffFest 2027 will bring international scaffolding championships, a trade exhibition and family entertainment to NAEC Stoneleigh in Warwickshire next July, Scaffmag can exclusively reveal.
A handy social media playbook has been released ahead of ScaffEx 2026, giving exhibitors and attendees ideas for building their presence around the event.
Created by Petite Agency, ScaffEx26’s social media partner, the 12-page guide covers how companies and their teams can plan content before arriving at Manchester Central, capture material during the show and keep the conversation going afterwards.
The guide starts with a simple marketing check-in covering company LinkedIn pages, staff profiles and content planning. Businesses can score themselves against 15 points, including whether team members have announced they are attending, whether meetings are being arranged and who will be responsible for filming content at the event.
Start before the show
One of the main messages is to begin communicating before arriving at ScaffEx.
The week before the event is suggested as the time to tell customers and contacts that the business is attending, explain what visitors can expect to see, introduce the team and arrange meetings in advance.
There is also a strong focus on the people behind exhibiting companies.
Managing directors, sales staff, technical specialists and other team members are encouraged to use their personal LinkedIn accounts to talk about what they are looking forward to, who they hope to meet and the issues they expect the industry to be discussing at the show.
The advice is deliberately simple. Companies are encouraged to give staff a basic plan rather than relying on a stream of identical corporate posts.
During the show, suggested content includes stand tours, demonstrations, team introductions and daily observations. Afterwards, businesses can use the material for customer stories, event takeaways and follow-up posts.
A phone can do the job
The guide also makes the point that event content does not require a large production setup.
Teams are encouraged to use their phones to record short interviews with technical staff, salespeople and senior leaders. Suggested questions include what customers have been asking about during the day and what changes people are seeing across the scaffolding industry.
A separate checklist suggests capturing team photos, customer conversations, testimonials, products in use, behind-the-scenes footage and short pieces to camera during the two-day event.
The playbook also advises exhibitors to move beyond routine posts such as ‘great first day’ or simply announcing a stand number.
Instead, posts should give readers some detail about what happened, what conversations took place or what visitors can see on the stand. Each post should also have one clear action, such as visiting the stand, arranging a meeting or watching a demonstration.
Collaboration is another part of the plan. Exhibitors are encouraged to photograph and tag customers, suppliers and other companies, as well as comment on and share content being produced elsewhere at the show.
Before publishing, the guide suggests one final test: would someone actually stop and read the post, does it say something useful, and is there a reason for other people to join the conversation?
For exhibitors already planning a busy couple of days at Manchester Central, it is a useful reminder that a little preparation before the doors open could leave them with weeks of content after everyone has gone home.
Lighthouse Charity has launched an urgent appeal to raise £200,000 by Christmas, warning that record demand is putting its support services for construction workers and their families under pressure.
The charity says the number of families seeking financial, emotional and physical wellbeing support has risen by 51% so far this year. Food deliveries are up 65%, and it has funded more than 7,000 counselling sessions.
In the first seven months of 2026, Lighthouse supported more than 6,000 families and delivered over 8,000 meals, according to its latest media release.
The Winter Appeal is intended to help maintain those services as the charity approaches what it describes as its busiest and most challenging quarter.
Full-time workers seeking help
Sarah Bolton, chief executive of Lighthouse Charity, said the pressure extends to people who remain in full-time employment but cannot meet basic living costs.
“We’re receiving calls from people who are in full-time work but still can’t afford to feed their family, as well as paying for increased fuel, housing and energy costs,” she said.
Bolton said the charity’s team was hearing daily from workers struggling to cover essentials and travel costs, alongside people caring for sick children and relatives. Rising costs were adding to the strain on a workforce often working long hours, away from home and in challenging conditions.
“It’s a perfect storm and we need to act now. We need the support of the industry to ensure that we can continue to deliver our vital services,” she said.
“To achieve that we need to raise £200,000 by Christmas and we’re urging our industry leaders to join together in a unified force to support our community.”
Industry urged to support winter appeal
Lighthouse provides emotional, physical and financial wellbeing support to the construction community across the UK and Ireland. Its services include a confidential 24-hour helpline, one-to-one online chat and a self-support app.
The charity, which has been supporting the industry for 70 years, is asking individuals and businesses to contribute through its Winter Appeal page. The page also explains how donations help workers and families in need.
Construction workers and their families who need help can call 0345 605 1956 in the UK or 1800 939 122 in the Republic of Ireland. Free and confidential support is available 24/7, with online chat available through the charity’s website.
Scafom-rux will unveil a new aluminium temporary roof and beam system at ScaffEx26 next week, with the company claiming its new beam design can achieve clear spans of up to 70 m.
Called VECTA, the system brings temporary roofing and aluminium beams together within a single modular product range.
Scafom-rux says the beams have been designed for use across a number of applications, allowing contractors to use the same components beyond temporary roof structures.
The system will make its public debut at ScaffEx26, which takes place at Manchester Central on 10 and 11 September.
Among the main changes is a new tool-free cam-claw connection for the bracing system, alongside changes intended to make beams and braces easier to store and handle.
Scafom-rux has also developed a smaller Keder profile with water drainage and a redesigned Keder connection aimed at reducing water ingress around joints.
Other parts of the system include a new eaves detail, sheet tensioning that can be carried out after the roof sheeting has been installed, and a combined roof and scaffold support bracket for mobile and static arrangements.
The aluminium beams are likely to be one of the main talking points at the show.
According to Scafom-rux, their higher load capacity allows clear spans of up to 70 m, depending on the design and application.
The company also sees wider use of the beams as an important part of the VECTA concept, giving contractors more potential uses for equipment held in their stock.
Scafom-rux Global Marketing Director Ronny told Scaffmag that VECTA had been developed around the ability to use the same system components across different applications.
Further technical details will be released when the system is formally presented at ScaffEx26.
The company took the top scaffolding honour at the awards ceremony in London on Thursday night, seeing off competition from Allen & Foxworthy, Brand Access Solutions, Chris Sedgeman Scaffolding, PHD Access and Spencer Bridge Engineering.
Judges praised M R Scaffolding for its clear business strategy, investment in its workforce, approach to social value and innovation, as well as a health and safety culture they said was both personal and embedded throughout the business.
The award marks a significant achievement for the London-based contractor, which delivers scaffolding and access services across a range of commercial and complex projects.
Safety culture stands out
Credit: M R Scaffolding / LinkedIn
Health and safety was a particularly strong element of M R Scaffolding’s entry.
The company has placed considerable emphasis on creating an environment where workers are encouraged to report near misses and speak openly about safety, with Managing Director John Trayfoot drawing on his own experience of a serious fall earlier in his career.
That approach has increasingly become central to the company’s wider culture, alongside investment in people, training and operational improvement.
M R Scaffolding’s 5 Aldermanbury Square project was also shortlisted for Project of the Year in the £1.5m to £3m category.
Blenheim Palace project takes top award
There was further recognition for the scaffolding industry on the night, with Allen & Foxworthy winning Project of the Year, £1.5m–£3m, for its work on the Blenheim Palace roof restoration.
The judges highlighted the innovative scaffolding design used on the historic project and the challenges involved in delivering complex access while the World Heritage Site remained open to visitors.
The entry was also recognised for its approach to skills transfer and a bespoke drainage solution developed as part of the temporary works.
The result adds another major industry accolade to a project that has required extensive temporary access to support one of the most significant restoration programmes undertaken at Blenheim Palace.
Elsewhere, Chris Sedgeman Scaffolding was shortlisted in the Project of the Year under £1.5m category for its Poldhu Project – Storm Goretti.
The Construction News Specialists Awards recognise specialist contractors across the UK construction industry, with categories covering individual trades, projects, innovation, sustainability and business performance.
This year’s ceremony was held at the London Hilton on Park Lane on 3 September.
A serious scaffolding incident can unfold in seconds, but the consequences for the people and businesses involved can continue for years.
That is the focus of the opening episode of the new season of The Brace Yourself Podcast, which sees hosts Simon Boyes and Ben Beaumont, ScaffPlan’s founder and managing director, joined by scaffolding safety specialist and expert witness Keaton Owen.
Owen, founder of Scaffold Safety, has more than 20 years’ experience across scaffolding, safety and training. His career has taken him from working on the tools and supervising scaffolding crews to senior safety roles, training, inspections and expert evidence in serious workplace prosecutions, including cases that have reached the higher courts. His work sits within the Australian safety and legal system, so the terminology and processes discussed should not be assumed to transfer directly to the UK or other jurisdictions.
The episode concentrates on what happens after an accident has occurred, rather than why it happened. Using the example of a worker falling from a scaffold, the discussion begins with the immediate emergency response before moving through scene preservation, investigation, documentation, expert evidence and, in some cases, the eventual court process.
The first few hours
Owen explains that following a serious incident, emergency services take priority. Depending on the circumstances, ambulance crews, fire and rescue services and police may all attend, and once the injured person has been cared for, attention turns to securing the area and understanding what happened.
One of the challenges is balancing the need to make the site safe with the requirement to preserve evidence. Isolating the risk may mean blocking off a bay or a stair, Owen explains, but beyond that the scene stays as it is.
“Leave things where they are,” he says. “If a board’s fallen, leave it where it is. Don’t try and cover up that the board’s fallen out, or where the handrail’s missing, because they need a thorough timeline of photos and measurements specific to the causation.”
The case for rehearsal is stronger than most listeners will expect. Owen says around 70% of rescue-related injuries come from first responders who are not trained for the situation, a figure he pairs with what he has seen on site.
“I’ve seen people grabbing pieces of tube off the ground, don’t even have a hammer, trying to take scaffold apart to get to injured people,” he says. “That can cause more damage than it’s actually fixing.”
Companies, he argues, need to understand their emergency procedures before they are ever required, through first-day training, mock rescues and scenario planning, particularly where scaffolders may need to help gain access to an injured person or remove sections of a structure during a rescue.
The paperwork question
Once the immediate emergency has passed, the investigation begins.
According to Owen, investigators may want to examine everything from risk assessments and safe working procedures to inspection records, worker inductions, training records and scaffolding licences, with design and engineering information forming part of the evidence where it is relevant to the structure involved.
Investigators look well beyond what paperwork existed. They want to know whether hazards had been identified, what controls were supposed to be in place and whether those controls were actually being followed when the incident happened. Emails, messages and other communications can become relevant where investigators are trying to establish who knew about a particular risk and when they knew it.
Responsibility can extend beyond the scaffolder
A serious incident involving scaffolding does not automatically mean responsibility sits with one contractor. Under the Australian framework, Owen explains, several parties can hold overlapping duties of care at once, and prosecutions regularly involve more than one of them. “Most of these prosecutions that I deal with, there’s a scaffold contractor getting prosecuted and there’s a builder at the same time,” he says.
Where responsibility lands turns on two questions that follow every duty holder into court. “One of them will be what you reasonably ought to know. For who you are in your position, what should you have known? For a builder it’s completely different, sometimes, to an engineer or a scaffolder,” Owen says. The second is how obvious and foreseeable the risk was.
The stakes have risen too. Owen notes that the major Australian states have passed industrial manslaughter laws, with fines for the most serious reckless or negligent breaches running from hundreds of thousands into the millions of dollars, alongside potential jail time. Courts can also order companies to publicly declare an incident.
What an expert witness actually does
The episode also opens up a part of the process few in the industry ever see: Owen’s own role. Engaged to give technical guidance to the court, he prepares detailed reports on causation and industry practice, and before a case is heard, the opposing experts meet.
“The two experts come together and they talk about what they agree and what they don’t agree on, and they create what they call a conclave report,” he says. “The judge has got both your reports and then your conclave report, so he’s really clear on what both your opinions are.”
Cases can continue for years
One of the more sobering stretches of the conversation concerns time. Owen says cases typically take at least two years to move from incident to court, with three or four not unusual, and significant involvement from lawyers, barristers and technical specialists along the way.
“I’m working on some at the moment that probably won’t go to court till next year, and they happened in 2022,” he says. “That’s five years.”
For scaffolding businesses, the practical lesson is to make sure safety systems work before an accident ever tests them. Asked what every scaffold business should have in place, Owen starts in the same spot.
“Read your guides. Read your standards, read your codes, grab hold of your regulator guides, read it all, and align what you do to that,” he says. “And then verify everything you do. Most people’s compliance doesn’t get questioned until there’s actually been an incident.”
Scaffmag joins Brace Yourself
The episode also marks the beginning of Scaffmag’s partnership with The Brace Yourself Podcast, with Scaffmag becoming the show’s Official Media Partner. Each episode will now include a dedicated Scaffmag industry news update covering some of the biggest stories from across the scaffolding and access sector.
You’re tendering for one of the biggest jobs you’ve surveyed this year, and now it all comes down to a strong covering letter. You asked ChatGPT to write it. What came back was correct, polite, and could have been sent by any scaffold company in the country.
So you wrote better instructions, called a “prompt”. “Confident but not pushy.” “Mention our safety record.” “Keep it under a page.” The second letter was longer than the first and still nothing stands out. You don’t feel unique.
The reason has nothing to do with how you worded the prompt.
Most people carry on in this direction, writing longer and longer instructions and getting little improvement for the effort. ChatGPT works by matching patterns. So does Claude, and so does every tool like them. AIs are strong at building on something that already exists and weak at creating something from an abstract description.
“Confident but not pushy” may mean something different to you than it does to me, and ChatGPT has no way of knowing what specifically you intended. However, the last covering letter that you wrote yourself has meaning. It sits there in your words, with your rhythm and your way of handling price.
Instead of telling ChatGPT what you want, show it.
Paste in the covering letter you sent for the job you won in March. Then ask for a new letter, for this client, for this scope, written like that one. The output changes completely. The original version sounds like the internet (which is what ChatGPT was trained on) and the new one sounds like your scaffold company, because your voice lives in those documents and nowhere else.
Think about what happens if you leave ChatGPT alone. Every scaffold company bidding against you has the same ChatGPT open this month, and left to itself, it writes everyone similar letters. The client opening five tenders reads five versions of one voice.
Pasting in an example works well beyond covering letters. Show the AI two of your own method statements and the third arrives matching them. Show it the reply you send when a client asks for a variation, and you stop writing that reply from scratch every month.
Keep your best covering letters, method statements and variation replies in one place and reuse them, because the more of your own work you give ChatGPT, the closer the answer lands.
Before you start pasting, you need to be aware of two things, and they matter more than anything else in this article.
ChatGPT copies faithfully, which includes the habits you would rather not repeat. If your old letter buries the price on the second page, so will the new one. Read what comes back before it goes out.
And think about what the document contains before you paste it. A covering letter is one thing. A full rate build-up is another, and where those details go depends on which account your people signed in with. A later column deals with that properly.
Try this next time you use ChatGPT. Find the last thing you sent that you were pleased with. One document. Paste it in before you ask for anything at all.
You have spent years communicating with your clients. Every covering letter, every method statement, every reply is already yours. Nobody else has a copy. Start there.
For an experienced scaffolding operator looking to expand, acquire, or relocate, Sidewall Scaffolding offers something that normally takes years to build: an established Auckland business with equipment, customers, systems, and a platform for further growth.
Starting a scaffolding business in a new market is rarely about the scaffold alone. The harder work is building a customer base, creating reliable systems, recruiting people who understand the operation and earning enough trust to generate repeat work.
Sidewall has already laid that groundwork.
Established in Auckland in 2021, Sidewall is now being offered to prospective buyers as a functioning scaffolding and access business rather than simply a collection of equipment. It brings together established client relationships, Layher scaffolding systems, vehicles, operational infrastructure and digital processes developed around the day-to-day running of the company.
For an existing contractor, that creates the opportunity to enter New Zealand’s largest construction market without starting from zero. For an experienced owner-manager, it offers the chance to take over an established operation and shape its next stage of growth.
An operating business, not a start-up
Sidewall works across the wider Auckland region, supporting residential builders, construction companies and trade clients with planning, site assessment, scaffold delivery and installation, modifications, project coordination and dismantling.
The company says repeat builders, contractors and referral customers form an important part of its workload. Those relationships are a significant part of what a purchaser would be acquiring, alongside the physical assets of the business.
Sidewall has also developed proprietary digital systems covering planning, scheduling, workflow management and operational coordination. The aim has been to give the business better visibility across both sales and delivery, creating a more structured platform for future growth.
The timing of Sidewall’s development is part of the story. The company was established in 2021 and has grown through a period that included Covid disruption, supply-chain shortages, rising costs, higher interest rates and the construction downturn of 2024 and 2025.
Rather than waiting for conditions to improve, Sidewall says it continued to invest in equipment, expand its customer base and refine the systems used to manage the business.
For a prospective buyer, that gives the operation a track record formed under difficult market conditions rather than only during a period of strong demand.
What is already in place
According to information supplied by Sidewall, the business has a combined tangible and intangible asset base of approximately NZD $1.4 million.
That figure includes premium Layher scaffolding systems, vehicles, equipment and operational infrastructure, together with the value Sidewall places on its established client base, brand, market relationships, proprietary systems, processes and operating know-how.
The NZD $1.4 million figure is Sidewall’s stated combined asset value and should not be interpreted as the asking price for the company. Commercial terms would be discussed directly with prospective purchasers.
The distinction matters. The opportunity is not simply to purchase scaffold stock. It is to acquire an existing operating platform with the equipment and processes already assembled around it.
Sidewall believes the foundations are in place for a new owner to grow the business in several directions.
Opportunities identified by the company include increasing utilisation of the existing scaffold inventory, expanding relationships with larger residential builders, targeting larger construction projects, adding crews as demand increases and strengthening structured sales and business development.
For an established scaffolding company outside Auckland, the acquisition could also provide an immediate regional base without the time and cost involved in opening a new branch from scratch.
A market beginning to recover
The wider construction backdrop is also becoming more supportive.
Official Stats NZ figures show that 40,581 new homes were consented across New Zealand in the year ended June 2026, up 19% on the previous year. Auckland remains the country’s largest construction market and an important centre of residential and commercial activity.
That does not remove the normal risks attached to construction markets, but it means a prospective buyer would be looking at Sidewall after the business has already operated through a difficult part of the cycle and as residential consent activity is moving upwards again.
An option for international buyers
There is also a second dimension to the opportunity for experienced business owners outside New Zealand.
New Zealand’s Business Investor Work Visa is designed for experienced business people investing in and actively operating an eligible established New Zealand business. Current pathways include a minimum NZD $1 million investment under the standard route, with potential eligibility to apply for residence after three years, and a NZD $2 million fast-track route with potential eligibility after 12 months.
Additional requirements apply to the applicant, the business, the investment, employment and time spent in New Zealand. Any overseas purchaser would therefore need independent immigration, legal and financial advice, and buying Sidewall would not itself guarantee visa or residence eligibility.
For the right buyer, however, the combination is unusual: an established scaffolding business in Auckland together with the possibility of building a longer-term future in New Zealand.
The opportunity
Sidewall has already completed much of the work that makes entering a new market difficult. The equipment base has been assembled, systems have been developed, customers have been won and an operating presence has been established.
The next owner would be taking over that platform rather than beginning with an empty yard and a new company.
For an established scaffolding contractor, that could mean a ready-made foothold in Auckland. For an experienced industry entrepreneur, it could mean taking control of a business they already understand in a market with renewed signs of construction growth.
Interested parties can contact Sidewall Scaffolding directly to request further information and arrange a confidential discussion about the business.
Browne’s Scaffolding is opening its Ashford yard to teachers and careers advisers next week as the industry looks for new ways to tackle its shortage of skilled workers.
On Wednesday 9 September, the Kent contractor will host an NASC Teacher Tour, bringing education and careers professionals into the business to see the routes into scaffolding first-hand.
Visitors will be introduced to apprenticeships and direct entry, the CISRS qualification structure, safety standards and the different career paths available once someone enters the trade.
The visit comes as recruitment remains a serious problem across scaffolding.
NASC’s 2026 Skills Gap Report found that 56% of responding full member businesses had at least one unfilled vacancy, equivalent to around 1,760 vacancies across its full membership.
Scaffolders accounted for the largest share of those vacancies. NASC also found that 83% of respondents expected to recruit during 2026.
The pressure extends across construction. CITB’s latest Construction Workforce Outlook estimates that an average of 41,200 extra workers will be needed each year between 2026 and 2030, around 206,000 workers over the five-year period.
Getting careers advisers into the yard
NASC launched its Teacher Tours pilot earlier this year to give teachers, careers leaders, advisers and employability professionals first-hand experience of the scaffolding and access industry.
David Browne, co-founder of Browne’s Scaffolding, said employers had a part to play in making sure those people understand what a career in the industry can involve.
“For years, construction has talked about the skills gap, but we also have to ask ourselves how much young people, parents and teachers really know about the careers available to them.
“Scaffolding is a skilled profession with recognised qualifications, structured apprenticeships, strong earning potential and opportunities to progress into supervision, health and safety, inspection, design, project management and ultimately running a business.
“If the people advising young people have never seen our industry first-hand, we can’t expect them to understand all of those opportunities. That’s why opening our doors and showing them what the job is really about matters.”
Apprenticeship route
Founded in Kent in 2006, Browne’s now carries out scaffolding and specialist access work across the UK and Europe.
The business also runs its own apprenticeship programme, combining practical site experience with formal training leading to an NVQ Level 2 in Scaffolding.
The Ashford Teacher Tour takes place one day before ScaffEx26 opens at Manchester Central on 10 September, where training, recruitment and the future scaffolding workforce will be among the issues under discussion.
Browne’s said it hopes the visit will give education professionals a clearer picture of the trade so they can discuss scaffolding with young people as a genuine career option.
AT-PAC will demonstrate its Weather Protection Solutions at ScaffEx26, with live demonstrations of the Scaffix temporary roof system planned during the Manchester event.
Visitors will be able to see Scaffix and its assembly possibilities in the Demo Zone, where AT-PAC will present how the temporary roof system can be used to protect works from rain, snow, wind and low temperatures.
AT-PAC said its weather protection systems are engineered on a project-specific basis, with a focus on structural integrity, safe installation and maintaining stable working conditions during poor weather.
The company will also livestream from ScaffEx26, with sessions planned from the Demo Zone on Thursday and the Conference Zone on Friday. The broadcasts will be available via LinkedIn and YouTube.
The Raised Ledger System will still be displayed on AT-PAC’s Stand D50. The product has been shortlisted for the Product of the Year award, but it will not form part of the live demonstration.
ScaffEx26 takes place at Manchester Central on 10 and 11 September, bringing contractors, manufacturers, suppliers and industry organisations together for two days of exhibitions, demonstrations and conference sessions.
A scaffolding worker has been awarded more than A$752,000 in damages after an Australian court found his former employer negligent over a fall through an unprotected skylight at a defence site in Canberra.
The ACT Supreme Court judgment concerns an accident in August 2023 at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), where the worker was employed by scaffolding company ACT Height Safety Pty Ltd.
According to the judgment, the worker was carrying out scaffolding upgrade work around 1.2 metres above the roof of a laundry building when he stepped backwards onto a skylight and fell through it.
He struck a washing machine during the fall and suffered injuries to his back and shoulder, as well as cuts to his hand.
Court finds employer negligent
Acting Justice Michael Elkaim found ACT Height Safety had been negligent by leaving the skylight uncovered, allowing the worker to operate near or above it and failing to warn him to keep clear of the hazard.
The court heard competing accounts of the incident. The employer disputed that the fall had occurred as described and maintained that the worker had suffered only a minor injury to his hand. The judge rejected key parts of that account and accepted the worker’s evidence.
The court also found that the worker had contributed to the accident by failing to take sufficient care around a visible hazard. However, the judge decided that damages should not be reduced on that basis, having regard to the employer’s duty of care and its failure to protect the skylight.
ACT Height Safety is now in liquidation and had not held the required workers’ compensation insurance. The claim was therefore defended by the ACT Workers’ Compensation Default Insurance Fund.
Heavy work severely limited
Medical evidence considered by the court indicated that the accident significantly aggravated the worker’s thoracic spine and left him with shoulder and lower-back problems.
Acting Justice Elkaim concluded that even with successful shoulder surgery, the worker’s ability to return to heavy physical work such as scaffolding would be severely limited.
The total award was A$752,487, including A$127,500 for past loss of earnings and A$342,619 for future economic loss.
