WorkSafe is investigating the death of a worker who was crushed at a wind farm project in western Victoria on Monday, as unions raise concerns about safety conditions at the site.

A 36-year-old installation technician has died after being crushed by a turbine blade at Golden Plains Wind Farm, a major wind project at Rokewood, west of Geelong.

Aerial footage taken after the incident showed a turbine blade resting on crushed and toppled scaffolding.

Vestas, the main contractor for the first phase of the project, said the blade was being prepared for installation.

“The blade is stored on the ground, and there is preparation work to be done before it can be lifted, and it is in this workflow that the incident or accident occurred,” Danny Nielsen, Country Manager for Vestas Australia and New Zealand. , said Monday afternoon.

Mr Nielsen said work at the site would be halted for the “coming days” while an investigation was carried out.

The death follows an incident at the wind farm in September, when small parts of turbine blades separated from the turbines.

No one was injured at the time. Vestas said it was finalizing an investigation into the incident, which it said occurred “during an extreme weather event.”

Unions say they have raised safety concerns

Australian Workers Union Victoria state secretary Ronnie Hayden said the union had serious safety concerns at the construction site.

“There are parts of this site that are just a disaster,” he told ABC.

“Our delegates met with their management just a week and a half ago and said it was just pure luck that no one had died on the job yet, and we were just unlucky .”

He said three unions had called a meeting with Vestas to express various concerns.

Concerns, he said, included the company using non-union contractors for some of the most dangerous work on site, poor safety standards and incidents of “blades hitting… tricks (and) near misses.”

“There’s been a whole host of issues that have happened since day one,” he said.

He said AWU representatives were not reassured when they left the meeting.

“(Vestas) kind of ignored it. Sometimes they think everyone overreacted,” he said.

Mr Nielsen said the company was meeting with unions “every week” to discuss “a wide range of issues”.

“To my knowledge, this particular incident was not discussed at any meeting,” he said.

Mr Hayden also expressed concern about labor standards in the renewable energy sector.

“The renewable energy sector is about 15 years behind civil construction (in terms of safety standards),” he said.

“Looking at workplaces like this, I think they believe they can get away with questionable working conditions because they’re struggling…and they’re getting away with it.”

Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees’ Union (CFMEU) national secretary Zach Smith claimed Vestas had “previously blocked union officials from accessing the site who attempted to raise serious labor concerns. health and safety”.

He said the CFMEU had submitted written and verbal safety reports to WorkSafe regarding Vestas.

Vestas and WorkSafe have been contacted for comment.