WorkSafe – Page 62 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Local safety article reflects bigger issues

Workplace safety hardly ever gets a mention in the daily newspapers unless there is a big corporate name involved or a record fine. Local newspapers often provide more coverage of workplace incidents because the local angle allows for the reporting of the social and familial impact of an incident within days of it occurring.

The 9 February 2011 edition of the Melbourne Times Weekly included a feature article – “Risky Business” by Genevieve Gannon. The existence of any media mention of workplace safety is of note in itself but Gannon’s article, with assistance from the always-helpful WorkSafe spokesperson, Michael Birt, does not only focus on the fatalities (23 in 2010) but also on the maimings. Around 70 people had life-threatening injuries in Victoria in 2010 and 20,000 were seriously injured. Continue reading “Local safety article reflects bigger issues”

Only animals should die in abattoirs

The Sunday Age of 30 January 2011 ran an article about the status of workplace safety in some of Victoria’s abattoirs. The article has some similarities to the landmark investigations by Eric Schlosser into work practices and compensation issues related to meatworks in the United States.

The Sunday Age says that

“(Last financial year [2009/2010], there were 355 workers’ compensation claims in Victoria’s meat industry that required at least 10 days off work, or cost more than $580 in treatment, or both – almost one a day. Nationally the industry’s injury and illness rate remains twice as high as that in the construction industry, and four times the average of all workplaces.”

Many would say that meat work is “inherently dangerous” but in the article lawyer Trevor Monti, contests the perception

”Yes, it’s a difficult industry and the work can be hard,” he says. ”But with proper consideration given to the system of work, the risk of injury can be significantly reduced.”

This is a position with which OHS professionals and regulators would agree.

It is significant that, if the comparative figures quoted above by the Sunday Age are accurate, abattoirs do not receive the enforcement attention that the construction industry receives. Is it that the construction industry is largely unionised and the meat industry much less so? Is it that abattoirs are rorting the immigration visa system as asserted by the Australian Meat Industry? Continue reading “Only animals should die in abattoirs”

Quad bike fatality costs over $80k in penalties

A Western Australian company has been fined $A50,000 over the death of one of its workers in November 2008 The worker rode a quad bike into a wire gate and died. The recent WorkSafe WA media release focuses, understandably on the fine imposed in the Perth Magistrates’ Court on Jenara P/L but a clearer picture of the incident is available from an earlier WorkSafe report into the incident. The accused, in this instance, was Seatown Holdings, a labour hire firm who was fined $A30,000 :

“The accused was a labour hire company which employed a worker for remuneration and arranged for said worker to work for Jenara Pty Ltd who was one of its clients.

The client ran a grain growing farm near Miling.

During the afternoon on Sunday 16 November 2008 the worker was working alone and riding an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) on a road on the client’s farm when he rode into a wire gate known as a ‘cockies gate’. Continue reading “Quad bike fatality costs over $80k in penalties”

WorkSafe prosecutes Dept of Corrective Services and G4S

In June 2010 WorkSafe WA began investigating the 2008 death from heat stroke of 46-year-old aboriginal elder Mr Ward. According to one media report :

“A broken air conditioner forced Mr Ward to endure temperatures above 50 degrees during the non-stop, four-hour journey to face a drink-driving charge in court.”

The same article noted that in June 2010 the Director of Public Prosecutions Joe McGrath announced that no charges would be laid against two security guards over the 46-year-old’s death.

On 19 January 2011, WorkSafe announced that it

“… will prosecute the State of Western Australia (Department of Corrective Services), government contractor G4S Custodial Services Pty Ltd (formerly GSL Custodial Services Pty Ltd) and the two drivers involved in the death of Mr Ward in January 2008.”

WorkSafe notes in its media release that

“A Coronial Inquest was completed in May 2009, with the State Coroner Alastair Hope concluding that all four parties [listed in the above quote] contributed to the death.” Continue reading “WorkSafe prosecutes Dept of Corrective Services and G4S”

Quad bike safety issues continue with no end in sight

SafetyAtWorkBlog has been following the discussions about safety of all-terrain vehicles and quad bikes for some time. This is because the use of these vehicles encapsulate so many of the issues that workplace safety needs to deal with:

Safe design
Personal protective equipment
Hierarchy of controls
The line between private activity and work activity
Personal responsibility
The “nanny state”
Regulatory safety guidance
Industry-based codes of practice

On 19 December 2010, the New Zealand Sunday Star Times ran a feature article on quad bikes, written by Amanda Cropp (I can’t find the article online but please send a link if you can) entitled “Risky Business”. The article is a fair summation of many of the perspectives and attitudes to quad bike safety.

For those readers who like statistics, Cropp writes that

“The annual ACC [Accident Compensation Corporation] bill for quad bike-related injuries is around $7 million, and Hobbs’ claim was among 2533 in 2009, a sizeable increase on the 457 new claims accepted in 2000.” [link added] Continue reading “Quad bike safety issues continue with no end in sight”

WorkSafe tries new twist on OHS ads

On 2 January 2011, WorkSafe Victoria launched a new advertisement that presents a new twist on their “homecoming” campaign. It focuses on the “door knock” – a process many police dread where they must inform the family of the death of a relative.

The ad is a fresh and new dimension on the long-running OHS awareness campaign and is welcome. Continue reading “WorkSafe tries new twist on OHS ads”

Telling is better than being exposed

Many OHS laws place obligations on employers to notify regulators ( ) of any particularly serious (often defined) incidents. In many jurisdictions regulators are sometimes informed of work-related hospital admissions, for instance, even if employers do not notify. But there is substantial benefit in notifying the regulators early.

Anecdotal evidence shows that by facing up to the reality that an incident has occurred is less costly in the long term as this shows that one is aware of one’s OHS obligations and willing to apply them.

The wisdom of reporting incidents in a timely manner is perhaps illustrated by a 17 December 2010 article in The Age newspaper. It is rumoured that incidents involving apprentice tiler Kane Ammerlaan may not have been reported to the OHS regulator in Victoria, WorkSafe.

Prompt reporting may not have been able to improve Ammerlaan’s situation relating to the fall but investigations into this possibly life-changing incident could have begun much earlier, and when evidence was easier to collate.

Ammerlaan also alleges that:

‘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.”

This may raise, yet again, the safety issue of the treatment of young workers and apprentices; an issue on which the community seems to require regular reminding.

Kevin Jones

Category: WorkSafe

Local safety article reflects bigger issues

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Only animals should die in abattoirs

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Quad bike fatality costs over $80k in penalties

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WorkSafe prosecutes Dept of Corrective Services and G4S

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Quad bike safety issues continue with no end in sight

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WorkSafe tries new twist on OHS ads

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Telling is better than being exposed

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