SFM Marine, under Andrew and Nicola Forrest's (pictured) Tattarang, has been fined over a workplace injury at a Henderson marine yard.

Andrew and Nicola Forrest's marine maintenance company has been fined $340,000 after a worker and was injured at a Henderson marine yard.

SFM Marine, part of the Forrests' Tattarang empire, pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace over an incident where a worker fell from a set of stairs when working on a boat in Henderson in December 2020.

WorkSafe today released a statement, announcing SFM Marine has been fined in the Fremantle Magistrates Court earlier this month.

SFM was fined $340,000 and ordered to pay more than $8,500 in costs, WorkSafe said.

Tattarang acquired Northport Marine Services and rebranded it to SFM Marine in June 2020.

The marine maintenance company operates from North Fremantle and Henderson, providing lifting, haul and launch services for recreational vessels.

In its statement, WorkSafe said a worker who was contracted to install handrails on a boat fell from the top of a set of stairs, landed onto the bitumen and fractured both ankles in December 2020.

The set of stairs was being used to access the boat, placed on hard stands at the marine yard.

However, the handrail on the stairs gave way when the worker leaned against it and he fell about 2.5 metres down.

WorkSafe said the worker experienced ongoing pain and restriction in his activities because of his injuries.

SFM Marine acquired sets of aluminium and steel stairs when it took control of the Henderson marine yard, which were visually inspected to identify the ones safe to use.

According to WorkSafe, there were no formal procedures for regular inspection and maintenance of the stairs and the yard manager only did a visual inspection when he placed the stairs next to the boat.

"His visual assessment concluded that the handrail was intact because it was sitting in place where it should be," WorkSafe said.

"Prior to this incident, the yard manager had voiced concerns to a safety consultant that stairs were non-rated and missing handrails, but the consultant's observations and recommendations had not been received by SFM at the time of this incident."

SFM had a policy requirement for visitors to sign in and complete an induction form, but it was not consistently enforced and the injured man was not instructed to complete one.

WorkSafe commissioner Sally North said the incident showed the need to regularly inspect, maintain equipment and have formal procedures to ensure maintenance was carried out.

"In this case, the company depended on a simple visual inspection of the stair handrail," she said.

"A safety consultant had observed cracked welds on at least one of the stairs, something that might have also been observed by the company if it had conducted closer examinations of the stairways.

"However, SFM did not have a formal process in place to ensure the stairs were regularly closely checked."

Ms North said anyone conducting a business were advised to do a thorough risk assessment of the workplace and must put controls to reduce the risk of injury to workers.

"This includes the risk of falls from height due to the failure of equipment," she said.

"The company had a safety management plan that included a system for managing risks associated with working at heights, but it evidently did not include regular checking that the sets of stairs were safe to use.

"It's not enough to conduct a risk assessment and come up with a safety management plan if that plan is not strictly followed, as this penalty demonstrates."