WorkSafe Tasmania recently issued a safety alert following an incident in which a worker was seriously injured when an excavator reversed over him as he was raking blue metal at a roadworks construction site.
WorkSafe Victoria recently issued a safety alert about controlling risks from the use of 4-in-1 buckets on skid-steer loaders following an incident in which an employee was seriously hurt while loading concrete rubble into a tip truck.
The AIHS will be publishing a series of news stories through October to support the four themes of National Safe Work Month. The first week focuses on WHS fundamentals, and gets back to basics by unpacking the fundamentals of WHS. There are a number of fundamentals of good WHS practice, according to Safe Work Australia and industry leaders, who said one of the most important is taking an evidence-based approach to proactively managing WHS risks.
As small businesses continue to struggle with high operational and living costs, there are calls to make at least one running cost free with concerns safety may be compromised to reduce spending.
While mining industry operators have experienced significant reductions in serious safety incidents through critical control management, there is still room for improvement as organisations learn the most effective ways to manage risks through the approach.
There has been a 56 per cent increase in workers’ compensation claims for assaults and exposure to workplace violence since 2017-18, according to a recent Safe Work Australia report. It found that there were 53,139 accepted workers’ compensation claims for being assaulted and 12,721 accepted claims for exposure to workplace or occupational violence over the past 10 years.
