Workplace safety: Get on to it, before we do.

31 October 2011

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A week after Victorian workplaces were confirmed as Australia’s safest, WorkSafe has launched a campaign urging safety improvements before an inspector visits.

The new campaign, ‘Any Day Now’ went to air last night & comes on the heels of the federal government's annual benchmarking report which confirms Victoria as having the lowest number of injuries per-thousand workers of any state or territory.

The Comparative Performance and Monitoring report compiled by Safe Work Australia standardises injury claims data and makes like-for-like comparisons across the states and territories.

Released last week, it records a 30 per cent drop in the rate of workplace injuries in Victoria between 2004 and 2010.

WorkSafe’s Executive Director of Health and Safety, Ian Forsyth, said Victorian businesses had delivered a great trifecta: Victoria’s safest-ever and Australia safest workplaces; and Victoria’s lowest-ever employer premium for workplace injury insurance.

“It's a great result and a credit to many employers, workers, health and safety representatives and consultants, but if were going to hold this position WorkSafe has to keep the pressure on.

“This campaign will help do that. It reminds employers that WorkSafe inspectors are out and about and that they are serious about safety,” Mr Forsyth said.

“Plenty of people are doing the right thing, but our inspectors come across the same problems over and over again.

“They’re generally basic matters that can be fixed at little or no cost, but if left undone can have devastating consequences,” he said.

“They are known hazards with known solutions. Workplaces need to find and fix problems, not wait for an inspector to come or for someone to be hurt or killed.”

The Assistant Treasurer, Gordon-Rich Phillips, said businesses which put their workers at risk not only disadvantaged themselves but also drove up the insurance premiums of good operators.

“Victorian businesses pay Australia’s lowest average workplace insurance premiums - 1.338% of remuneration, but industries with a lot of injuries will pay well above the average,” he said.  

“That reduces competitiveness, increases the cost of running the business and pushes up costs for consumers.”

“While Victorian workplaces were the safest they have ever been and the rate of injury is trending downwards, more can be done to prevent workplace injuries.”

“We’re calling on Victorian workplaces to stop, think and take action about improving safety. Simple steps make a real difference to individuals, families and businesses.”

Mr Forsyth said WorkSafe had recently just about doubled its rate of prosecutions, with 24 begun last month.

“There are nearly 100 cases now before the courts ranging from non compliance with safety improvement notices to major incidents where members of the public as well as workers have been put at risk and many fatalities.

“Many more matters are under investigation and with the cases we've run since May this year we're running at a success rate of more than 90 percent,” Mr Forsyth said.

“We take safety seriously and we will enforce the law, but business operators and workers can avoid prosecution by doing the right thing, consistently.”

For more information on the campaign, visit: www.worksafe.vic.gov.au.

Stats and facts:

• Victoria’s work-related death toll for the year stands at 16 compared with 19 at the same time last year.    
• Nearly 30,000 Victorians are hurt badly enough each year to make a compensation claim. This is where the injury has treatment and other costs of more than $580 and/or they are off work 10 days or more. Self-employed people are generally not included in these figures, nor are some major companies which are self-insured or under the Comcare system.
• Around 90,000 people currently receive support as a result of past injuries.
• Over the five financial years to the end of June 2011 there were 151,324 workers compensation claims in Victoria.
• Annual claims costs for WorkSafe Victoria are just under $1.5 billion every year. It’s funded by the community through employers’ workplace injury insurance.

• 60 per cent of all workplace injuries in Victoria resulted in musculoskeletal injuries such as sprains and strains, bone fractures, tendon and ligament damage caused by manual tasks and slips, trips and falls.

What is WorkSafe targeting in 2011-12?

A quarter of all claims in Victoria in 2009/10 came from fewer than 3,000 businesses that fall within eight high-risk industries. These industries are being targeted this financial year as part of a WorkSafe blitz.

They include: 

• Food Product Manufacturing
• Wood Product Manufacturing Synthetics
• Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing
• Plastics and rubber manufacturing
• Transport Equipment Manufacturing
• Road Transport
• Warehousing and Storage Services
• Residential Care Services

Safe Towns involve a team of WorkSafe inspectors who visit an area over a one-week period to check on compliance with workplace health and safety and return to work.

Remaining visits this year include Casterton & Coleraine (February), South Geelong & Breakwater (April), Ballarat (April) and Traralgon (May).   

In 2010-11 inspectors visited 1546 workplaces across Victoria as part of Safe Towns issuing 2,118 safety improvement notices and 24 prohibition notices where there was an immediate risk to safety or health. In 171 cases safety issues were fixed on-the-spot.

Commonly-found issues include dangerous manual handling including non-use of suitable lifting devices, damaged storage racking, unguarded machines, unsafe scaffolding, inappropriate storage of dangerous goods, inadequate return-to-work plans for injured workers and poor forklift traffic management.

 “Where's the fall protection?” A question often asked by WorkSafe inspectors.