Case

SafeWork NSW v Prime Marble & Granite Pty Ltd (2024)

SafeWork NSW sought permission from the High Court of Australia to appeal the Court of Criminal Appeal decision in Prime Marble & Granite Pty Ltd v SafeWork NSW, in which the prosecution against Prime Marble for the 2020 deaths of two workers exposed to unsafe levels of respirable crystalline silica (RCS) was dismissed.

The prosecution against Prime Marble had been commenced in March 2023, less than 2 years after SafeWork NSW became aware of the deaths of the two workers. SafeWork NSW had previously attended Prime Marble’s site in August 2017 and measured the exposure of workers to RCS, establishing that five of the workers were exposed to more than 7.5 times the exposure standard. In April 2018, SafeWork NSW issued an improvement notice, identifying a contravention on 16 March 2018 relating to unsafe exposure to RCS.