06:04 am, Wednesday 29 August, 2007

Source: Fairfax Digital

A 35-year-old man has been killed by falling sheets of glass at a factory in Sydney’s west.

He died about 5pm yesterday when the sheets, weighing 1.5 tonnes, fell on him from a timber crate at the Granville factory where he worked.

The glass sheets were being used to make shower screens.

Police and WorkCover inspectors inspected the factory yesterday, a police spokesman said.

“This case highlights the serious consequences that can occur where there is inadequate systems of work in place around stacking materials,” WorkCover CEO Jon Blackwell said.

Neither police nor WorkCover would reveal the man’s identity.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union’s occupational health and safety spokesman Dave Henry said the “tragic loss of a life” reflected the greater dangers faced by workers.

“Workers as a result of the Federal Howard Government’s Work Choices legislation are no longer comfortable or confident in removing themselves from dangerous situations,” he said.

OHS NEWS - Glass Handling Safety Procedure

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01:07 am, Saturday 25 August, 2007

Source: ABC

Project manager for the Bunbury Regional Prison expansion Tony Budrovich says there will not be a separate investigation into an asbestos scare at the construction site.

About 50 workers were evacuated from the site last Friday, when material resembling asbestos was found buried on the site.

The Construction, Forestr,y Mining and Energy Union says it wants WorkSafe to investigate the matter.

Mr Budrovich says the construction company did not know about the latest hazard, although some asbestos material was found on site six months ago.

“That situation was asbestos cement in a ceiling in another part of the prison that our contractor was working on and as soon as they were aware of the situation they had it tested,” he said.

“It proved to be asbestos cement and they actually removed it and replaced it in accord with all the guidelines.”

The department says it expects workers to be back on site in about a week.

OHS NEWS - TIP Asbestos Removal Safe Work Procedure

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06:02 pm, Friday 24 August, 2007

Source: ABC

The New South Wales coroner has found that the builders of the Cross City Tunnel should have done more to protect a worker who was killed in a rock fall.

Ronald Shores died on July 29, 2004, when a section of roof collapsed on him while he was working on a ventilation tunnel as part of the tunnel project.

At the time, Mr Shores was drilling a hole from under unsupported roofing.

The Deputy state coroner, Carl Milovanovich, has found that the death was preventable.

He found Mr Shore’s employer, Baulderstone Hornibrook/Bilfinger Berger, knew that Mr Shores was working in unsafe conditions.

Mr Milovanovich says the company had not identified safety issues in the construction and should have implemented measures to reduce risk.

Mr Shores’s widow, Marlene, says she is still angry her husband was not provided with a safe working environment.

“It happens all the time,” she said. “It’s not a real accident - it’s preventable.”

Her lawyer, Stuart Barnett, says she is still seeking closure.

“She still has to finalise her compensation claim and there is still the Occupational Health and Safety prosecution to sit through, so it goes on for the family and those around her,” he said.

WorkCover NSW is prosecuting five companies in the tunnel consortium for breaches of Occupational Health and Safety regulations.

OHS NEWS TIP - Working In Tunnels Safe Work Procedure

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01:04 pm, Friday 24 August, 2007

Source: Fairfax

A man died after hitting his head on a truck at a factory in Melbourne’s south-east last night, police say.

The homicide squad attended the scene when the death of the 26-year-old Glen Waverley man was treated as suspicious, but detectives last night deemed the death non-suspicious.

Police believe the man died about 6pm after either striking his head on a truck or as the result of a fall at the Noble Park furniture factory. He was with a co-worker a short time earlier.

Greater Dandenong Criminal Investigation Unit will prepare a brief on the man’s death for the coroner.

A spokesman for Worksafe Victoria said they would wait to hear from police before considering further action.

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08:00 am, Friday 24 August, 2007

Source: Daily Telegraph

EVERY winter we’re told to consider getting a flu vaccination. Good advice, with this year’s flu season being one of the worst in recent years. Hardest hit are Sydney’s commuters.

They are currently subjected to ongoing bus service disruption due to a virulent mutation of influenza commonly known in Sydney as bus flu. This flu was thought to have originated in the Ryde STA bus depot, although some claim it is a powerful derivative of the same influenza virus that infected train drivers in 2004. Once infected, patients become incapable of driving a bus and must remain at home for at least one day, whereupon the patient may experience rapid recovery, allowing normal work duties to begin again.

The main side effect is commuters being stranded on Sydney streets waiting for bus services that are cancelled as a result. Bus flu has been hopping from bus depot to bus depot, possibly spread by visiting union officials. Having made contact with delegates in one depot, it can easily pass on to other union members in another location. This has happened so often that up to 67 members from a single bus depot have reported they have been infected by bus flu and could not perform their normal duties at work, instead having to stay at home. This resulted in Sydney commuters being stranded at bus stops as more than 200 services were cancelled over a period of two days.

This is the version of events the union and the Iemma Labor Government would have you believe. WorkCover investigators were on their way when State Transit, after initially agreeing that all drivers who failed to arrive at work on Wednesday were in fact genuinely sick, backflipped yesterday and took the union to the Industrial Relations Commission, indicating they were in dispute.

Apparently bus flu was a misdiagnosis. The real villain was that old public menace, “strike-itis”. Talk to any bus driver and they’ll quickly tell you that split rostering, allowances and wage negotiations were all in dispute for many months before bus flu began wreaking its havoc.

The public are not fools but they have been played for exactly that by the Iemma Labor Government and the union who expected commuters to swallow their implausible excuses. It’s time for Dr John Watkins to end this nonsense for the sake of long-suffering commuters who, under his care, have endured needless suffering. John Watkins needs to take responsibility for his portfolio and the delivery of bus services and sit down with all parties and get this issue sorted.

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12:00 am, Friday 24 August, 2007

Source: ABC

A new report released by Queensland Health shows the fatality rate in the state’s mining industry has not improved in more than a decade.

Research by the Injury Surveillance Unit also reveals that almost 6,000 miners received minor injuries between 1998 and 2005.

Report author and Mackay Base Hospital physician Dr Dale Hanson says the most common injuries involved the eyes or hands, with many eye injuries occurring due to welding flashes.

He believes safety procedures need to be reinforced.

“Miners are still dying in the workplace and in Queensland,” he said.

“Every year we’d lose between one and three people who die at work.

“That comes down to a rate of about eight per 100,000 workers and that hasn’t changed much over the last 15-year period so that’s a bit disappointing.”

OHS NEWS - Safety Procedures

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12:00 am, Thursday 23 August, 2007

Source: Star News

A DANDENONG magistrate has ordered a food flavouring company to pay $10,000 to the Dandenong Benevolent Society after finding it in breach of forklift safety standards.

Worksafe Victoria last week said it prosecuted International Flavours and Fragrances Australia for failing to implement improvements to forklift safety at the company’s Dandenong-Frankston Road factory.

Dandenong Magistrate Steven Raleigh did not convict the company, but ordered it to donate $10,000 to the Dandenong Benevolent Society and placed it on a 12-month good behaviour bond.

Court costs of $2700 were also awarded against the company.

International Flavours and Fragrances Australia pleaded guilty to failing to implement the requirements of two improvement notices issued in relation to forklift safety in 2005.

WorkSafe spokesman Michael Birt said improvement notices were a formal direction to improve an identified hazard within an agreed period.

He said both matters had involved risks to pedestrians being hit by forklifts or their loads.

International Flavours and Fragrances Australia employs about 130 people.

The court heard that a WorkSafe inspector went to the company’s plant in July 2005 and observed there were no adequate measures, such as bollards, to prevent pedestrians being hit by forklifts.

WorkSafe executive director John Merritt said forklifts were among the most dangerous pieces of equipment in Victorian work places accounting for deaths and many serious injuries each year.

“Fifty five deaths involving forklifts have been reported to WorkSafe since 1985,” he said.

“Of these, nearly 30 involved pedestrians who were hit by the machines or the loads which fell.

“Physically separating work areas and pedestrian walkways from where forklifts operate is essential.

“Many places still only have lines on the ground to show where forklifts and pedestrians should be, but they’re only part of the solution, as are reflective vests.

“To places with rudimentary arrangements in place for forklifts, we’d say that relying on good luck or the skill of a forklift driver to stop in time to avoid a collision is not the basis of good safety practice.

“Equally, you can’t hope that pedestrians will not walk somewhere they should go,” Mr Merritt said.

“Although safety responsibilities are shared, the employer has the primary duty as they control the workplace.”

OHS NEWS TIP - Forklift Safe Work Procedure

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06:00 pm, Wednesday 22 August, 2007

Source:AAP

WorkCover NSW and the Housing Industry Association have announced what they say is a breakthrough safety agreement to cut the death toll of Australian construction workers.

The industry loses close to an average of one worker a week to fatal workplace injuries.

NSW Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca says the WorkCover-HIA partnership will lead to safer residential construction practices.

“As part of the agreement, WorkCover will provide a dedicated technical specialist from its construction team to provide comprehensive guidance and advice to assist HIA members and residential building contractors meet their workplace safety requirements,” Mr Della Bosca said.

“The agreement will recognise the unique safety needs of the residential building sector, and is designed to deliver safety outcomes that are comparable with other sectors of the construction industry.”

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has offered tentative support.

“The union welcomes any initiatives to improve safety in the industry,” a CFMEU spokesperson said.

“We still have 50 killed on work sites every year.

“The death toll has been pretty much steady while other industries are going down.

“When you’ve got 50 families being destroyed every year, it’s a pretty sad state of affairs.”

OHS NEWS - Construction Industry Safety Procedures

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04:00 pm, Wednesday 22 August, 2007

Source: The Courier

A 54-YEAR-OLD Leonards Hill man was killed yesterday when he was crushed by atractor in a farming accident.

The man had reversed the tractor into a water tank on his property about midday, Senior Constable Simon Barker of Daylesford police said.

He said the man had hit the water tank and jumped off to investigate the damage.

The tractor was still in gear while the man was investigating the other wheel, Sen Const Barker said.

“At some point he was pulled under.”

Sen Const Barker said the man was a farmer whose wife found him after the accident.

Worksafe Victoria spokesman Michael Birt said it was believed the tractor had become bogged.

“At some point he’s fallen under the wheel and suffered injuries to his upper body,” he said.

Mr Birt said there had been eight deaths involving tractors since October last year.

“It’s going to have an enormous impact on his family and the community and that is why we really need to get the message out to people.”

“We use machines because they are powerful and strong, but with that comes extreme danger if something does go wrong.”

Worksafe recently launched a tractor safety campaign. Mr Birt urged people using tractors to think very carefully about what they were doing.

Worksafe Victoria investigators and police are preparing a report for the coroner.

The name of the man has not yet been released.

OHS NEWS TIP - Tractor Safe Work Procedure

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04:00 pm, Monday 20 August, 2007

Source: Workplace Standards Tasmania

Between Friday 27 to Monday 30 April 2007, several men broke into an explosive magazine storage facility. Access into the permanent and fixed magazine was achieved by cutting the lock (shrouded) on a vehicle entrance boom-gate, and forcing entry into the small magazine building by removing a heavy metal vent cover and masonry bricks.

Approximately 500kgs of commercial explosives (Class 1.1D) was taken, including:

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