Rooftop fall left apprentice blinded in one eye


He was a teenager keen to start his new life at work but within six weeks he had been left blinded in one eye after a serious work injury.

Apprentice tiler Kane Ammerlaan, 16, said his employer, Dean Martin from DC Roof Tiling, laughed at him after he fell from a roof and wet cement shot into his eye.

''When I fell off the roof, all Dean did was laugh and took a photo of me on his phone,'' he said. ''I was overworked and I had a bucket that was probably 50 kilograms on my shoulder and that was why I fell off the roof … it was too heavy for my legs.''


As he fell, the cement flew with force from close range from the bucket and into his face. There was no first aid and nor was an ambulance called, he said. ''I went straight to the tap to try wash it out but realised it was much too deep and I couldn't.''

In the more than two hours it took until he was seen by a doctor, the cement had dried inside his left eye, he said, blinding him.

Mr Ammerlaan said there was no railing on the roof at the house he was working on in Rowville in mid-March and he was not wearing safety glasses - despite safety laws requiring a range of protections for roof workers.

Since the fall, Mr Ammerlaan said he had not heard from WorkSafe Victoria as to what action it proposed to take. In the past month, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union has taken up his case and pursued the employer for back pay it claims Mr Ammerlaan is owed.

CFMEU state secretary Bill Oliver condemned the employer for a lack of safety measures, describing the incident as ''disgraceful'' and preventable. ''We have repeatedly asked the employer, Dean Martin, to do the right thing and provide back pay for Kane before Christmas.''

Bayswater-based Mr Martin refused to answer questions  and hung up when contacted about the case.

Mr Ammerlaan started work for Mr Martin on his 16th birthday as he did not want to go back to school and wanted to do something outdoors. But he said his new life was marred by bullying and abuse from other tradesmen on the jobs he worked on.

''Through my six weeks I was constantly abused. There was a lot of verbal abuse; they'd throw stuff at me; I was shot with a nail gun on a few occasions.''

Now, he survives on workers' compensation of just $250 a week - even less than his basic apprentice wage. He has to wait more than a year for a final diagnosis on his eye, although he has been told it will not recover. ''There is nothing I can do. All I do is sit at home.''

Mr Ammerlaan said he had wanted to leave his job due to the poor treatment but had to work on March 13, a Saturday and the day he lost his sight, after the hailstorm that had ripped through Melbourne.

He said he was speaking publicly about the case to raise awareness about what could happen to young workers. ''It's not about getting the pay. This shouldn't have happened, there was no safety at all.''

The furnishing products division of the CFMEU is pushing for workplace agreements requiring firms to act quickly on bullying complaints.