Herman Holtz, 62, was helping build the University of Canberra Hospital, at Bruce, when he died on the job in August 2016.

He was crushed to death when an overloaded crane tipped over and fell on him as driver Michael John Watts, 49, used the machine to lift and reposition a 10.3-tonne generator.

Watts pleaded guilty to a charge of engaging in reckless conduct that exposed Mr Holtz to the risk of death or serious injury, and received a suspended 12-month jail sentence.

The driver's employer, subcontractor RAR Cranes, pleaded guilty in the ACT Industrial Court last month to a charge of exposing Mr Holtz to the risk of death or serious injury by failing to comply with a health and safety duty.

Multiplex Constructions, Mr Holtz's employer and the hospital project's principal contractor, appeared in that court for sentence on Wednesday after admitting the same charge as RAR Cranes.

Two of its directors sat in the public gallery to observe the proceedings as members of Mr Holtz's family filled the chairs on the other side of the corridor.

The sentence hearing was delayed for several hours as Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker considered legal arguments about a series of victim impact statements prepared by Mr Holtz's family.

Prosecutor Kylie Weston-Scheuber and Multiplex's barrister, Garry Livermore QC, agreed the court could receive these, though they were at odds on the extent to which Ms Walker would be able take them into account.

But Ms Walker ruled the statements were inadmissible because while Mr Holtz had been killed and his family had undoubtedly suffered as a result, the 62-year-old's death was not caused by Multiplex's offence.

Mr Livermore picked up on this point during his subsequent submissions, saying it was the conduct of Watts, who had overloaded the crane, that caused the machine to tip over.

He conceded, though, that Multiplex had breached its duty to Mr Holtz by failing to require that Watts complete a site-specific risk assessment form prior to lifting the generator.

Multiplex had therefore, he said, failed to "eliminate or minimise the risk posed by a crane tipping over and crushing a worker so far as reasonably practicable".

Mr Livermore added that, however, that Watts may still have overloaded the crane even if Multiplex had made sure the assessment was completed.

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While he said the risk "should have been foreseen" and acted upon, he argued it would be wrong to describe the chances of the crane actually falling and crushing someone as "anything but remote".

Dr Weston-Scheuber disagreed, saying the fact the crane was overloaded made the risk of it tipping over "obvious".

She told the court the form Watts should have completed was "the key document" designed to ensure cranes were used safety on the worksite.

Had Watts filled it out before performing the ill-fated lift, Dr Weston-Scheuber said, he would have had to consider "the very things" that led to him overloading the crane.

"Mr Watts failed to fill that [form] out because he was not required by [Multiplex] to do that," the prosecutor said, describing the company's failure as "a very serious one".

Ms Walker ultimately adjourned the proceedings until Friday, when she said she would hand down Multiplex's sentence.

The company, which has thousands of employees across six countries, faces a fine of up to $1.5 million.

The court heard the corporation had worked on projects valued at a combined $90.3 billion since it was founded in 1962.

RAR Cranes, a much smaller company based in Queanbeyan, will be sentenced next year.

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