Keeping workers safe in Australia can be a challenge in some facets of the workplace.
According to a report issued by Victoria’s WorkSafe, 10 tradesman are injured badly enough daily to make a compensation claim.
In the past five years, more than 17,000 injury claims from the construction industry were reported to WorkSafe, costing nearly $1 billion in treatment, wages and other expenses.
Tradesman and laborers made up close to 80 percent of those injured workers. Tragically, a pair of construction workers lost their lives last year.
More Necessary to Make Construction Industry Safe
WorkSafe Chief Executive Denise Cosgrove noted that while the construction industry understood the importance of safety, more needed to be done.
“Inspectors visit almost 40 construction sites across Victoria every day and, on average, they find almost 6,500 health and safety breaches every year. And that’s just not acceptable,” Cosgrove commented.
“The number of deaths, injuries and safety breaches prove that everyone – builders, contractors and workers – must do more to make sure workers get home to their families safely every night.”
According to Cosgrove, the majority of construction site injuries were caused by inadequate planning, poor site housekeeping and a lack of supervision.
“The injuries caused on sites are not always life threatening, but are often painful, costly and result in long periods off work,” Cosgrove continued.
6 Week Competition Focusing on Safety
Cosgrove went on to note that the statistics were released to draw attention to the launch today of the Top Tradie Cup, which is designed to get tradesman and others in the construction industry talking about safety.
“Top Tradie Cup will help to create a culture of safety on site, and encourage workers to speak up when they see safety breaches occurring,” she stated. “We know that creating a safety culture encourages behavior change which will ultimately lead to fewer workers being injured on site.”
The Top Tradie Cup is a six-week competition that tests tradesman on their football and safety knowledge. It is designed specifically for smart phones to make it easy for tradesman to compete and discuss safety on site.
Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Director of Operations, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
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