Christopher Cassiniti’s story is tragic on many levels. 18 years old, first construction job, Mum is running the tuckshop onsite, dead in a scaffold collapse in April 2019 at Macquarie Park (a site I know very well, more below), an incident for which the construction company, Ganellen, has pleaded guilty and has been fined less that $1 million which some have reported will likely be paid by its insurance company. The immorality of the insurance pay-out has been spoken of in a media release (November 19 2020) from New South Wales’ Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.
CFMEU NSW Construction Secretary, Darren Greenfield, said
“The death of Christopher Cassaniti in April 2019 was one of the most egregious industrial incidents we have seen in recent years and it is outrageous to learn Safework will settle the matter with the builder Ganellen for what is effectively the cost of the company’s insurance excess…,”