When purchasing and installing plant and machinery from overseas suppliers, businesses must ensure all components comply with Australian Standards to ensure they are safe. Additionally, some items of plant and plant designs must be registered with SafeWork authorities before being used at a workplace.
A Melbourne-based precast concrete manufacturer has pleaded guilty to failing to maintain a safe system of work and failing to prepare a Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS) for high-risk construction work.
WorkSafe's investigation found that concrete panels weighing nearly three tonnes each were standing vertically, without support and had been manufactured with only two lifting lugs, rather than the four required in the manufacturer's specifications. The panels were also being lifted by make-shift methods, rather than using lifting lugs that were called for in the design. WorkSafe Executive Director of Health and Safety Julie Nielsen said it was only sheer luck that the panels had not fallen on workers.
Read WorkSafe VIC's safety alert for tips to ensure workers' safety when storing concrete panels.
SafeWork inspectors attended a Macquarie Park worksite on Monday, 1 April 2019, after receiving reports that two workers had become trapped under scaffolding.
The tradesmen had been working from the bottom level of scaffolding when the structure suddenly collapsed. Another two workers were laying bricks at the top of the structure and jumped to safety. It is not yet known what caused the scaffolding to collapse, however, SafeWork will employ significant resources to fully understand how the tragedy occurred.
Service and Innovation and SafeWork regulator, Martin Hoffman, said SafeWork’s priority is workers returning home safely when they leave for work that day and believes better compliance and education around scaffolding will help to ensure that.
Keeping young workers safe and reducing potentially deadly falls at work sites is the focus of the latest Cross Border Construction Program blitz in the Albury Wodonga region.
WorkSafe Victoria and SafeWork NSW inspectors will visit construction sites on both sides of the border from March 25 to 29 to help keep them injury free.
The purpose of this safety alert is to inform workers, employers, builders and designers of the risk of sideways collapse of narrow concrete wall panels.
The purpose of this safety alert is to highlight the risks of hoist rope and brake failure on tower cranes. Employers, builders, workers and crane operators should apply the principles in this alert to any crane with a hoist rope. Planning is the first step in ensuring that work is done safely. For example;
Read more in the safety alert and provided links to 'Tower crane code of practice 2017' and 'Mobile crane code of practice 2016'.
The risks of falling objects at building sites will be the focus of WorkSafe inspectors when they visit Victorian construction sites in the coming weeks. In January there were a number of serious incidents involving falling objects, including an incident in which a tower crane dropped a concrete slab weighing about 11.5 tonnes.
Common causes for falling objects include gaps between safety screens or holes in safety netting, missing kick or toe boards on scaffolding, and debris or materials coming loose from plant while being lifted. Unsecured items stored close to edges or exposed to high winds can also cause incidents involving falling objects.
Visit the link below to view the full safety alert.
On Wednesday 30 January 2019, WorkSafe ACT was called to a construction site in Braddon where a large precast concrete panel fell from the building and impacted a neighbouring property.
It is imperative that a rigid system and safe work method statements are prepared and strictly followed when undertaking high risk construction work. There are no circumstances under which the installation of concrete panels can occur without being sufficiently planned and documented in a safe work method statement. It is imperative that any safe work method statement is strictly followed and the planned process is not deviated from without appropriate planning and documented variations made to the safe work method statement.
Following a number of recent incidents involving SafeWork inspectors, businesses and workers are being reminded that it is a criminal offence to hinder, obstruct, assault, threaten, or intimidate an inspector.
SafeWork SA has commenced a six-month audit campaign of Elevating Work Platforms (EWPs) (i.e. scissor lifts) in order to educate businesses and operators about their safety duties and enforce compliance with the law.
SafeWork SA Work Health and Safety Inspectors will visit workplaces using EWPs higher than 3 metres across a range of industries, including construction, to ensure appropriate safe systems of work are in place to protect workers, and that workers and employers are educated on their responsibilities.
