07:53 am, Tuesday 26 October, 2010

Two companies and a director have been fined after a worker touched an overhead powerline on a construction site.

The Melbourne Magistrate’s Court has convicted the construction company responsible for the site and its director on Thursday. They were fined $30,000 and $20,000 respectively.

The roofing company that employed the 21-year-old victim was also convicted and fined $8,000 earlier this year. It failed to adequately train and supervise workers installing the roofing, and to perform a job safety analysis for hazards including powerlines.

In 2008, the worker made contact with an overhead powerline while helping install a roof on a residential construction site. He sustained severe burn injuries to his right and left hands and left foot.

The court heard how the network electricity supplier warned the construction company over electrical hazards prior to the incident.

“What has happened here is a number of failures in a chain of responsibility,” WorkSafe’s Executive Director for Health and Safety Ian Forsyth said.

“[The construction company]and its director were warned about the no-go zone by the electricity supplier and ordered to stop construction work, yet they failed to do so.

“[The roofing company] had a responsibility to make sure their contractors could do their job safely – which they failed to uphold.

“And the worker’s direct employer… had an obligation to make sure the construction site was safe by performing a job safety analysis which considered risks including powerlines.

“None of these parties managed to fulfill their responsibilities. The upshot of all of this is that a young worker suffered debilitating injuries with long recovery times.”

Mr Forsyth said that ignoring no-go zones could not be excused.

“The risks around working near overhead powerlines are well known – the new no-go zone rules were introduced over a decade ago.

“In this case, despite warnings from the network electricity supplier, the company and its director showed blatant disregard for the risks.”

Mr Forsyth noted that there is an added level of responsibility when supervising young workers.

“Young workers are more likely to suffer a workplace injury than any other age-group, and more likely to be hospitalised as a result. Managers and supervisors need to be sure young workers are trained and supervised so that they can carry out their job safely.”

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09:25 am, Thursday 21 October, 2010

Politicians and their staff reckon they can handle changing a lightbulb.

However, existing occupational health and safety rules require a qualified electrician to do the job.

The situatation was brought up during a Senate hearing when Liberal Eric Abetz told his colleagues about his experience.

He said he was prevented from replacing a lightbulb in his office because it could require climbing a ladder, which was a safety risk.

“It is just impractical, it’s stupid,” he said.

“Most Australians would say if a person is not capable of changing a light globe, chances are they are not capable of running an electorate office,”

“It’s bureaucracy gone mad, it’s a waste of money and the minister should intervene to stop it,” he said.

Nationals senator Fiona Nash agreed with Senator Abetz, saying she was capable of doing the job.

“I would certainly be able to get up a ladder as a farm girl and change a light globe,” she said.

However, Labor senator Doug Cameron was more cautious about the matter.

“I have never even thought about changing a lightbulb in my office,” he said.

“If someone ended up being electrocuted with a faulty wire, then you wouldn’t be asking these questions.”

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham said he may have changed lightbulbs in his office, in violation of the requirements.

“I didn’t realise were an enormous breach of any type of laws,” he said, noting that some common sense should prevail in such a situation.

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08:40 am, Tuesday 19 October, 2010

Safety issues over plant and equipment remain a major concern for the agricultural industry, WorkSafe Victoria reveals.

WorkSafe inspectors have issued over 200 safety improvement notices to farm businesses from July to September as part of a year-long statewide farm safety campaign.

Now in its third month, the campaign focuses on the most common causes of farm injuries and fatalities.

According to WorkSafe’s Executive Director (Health and Safety) Ian Forsyth, over half of the safety notices issued were in connection with plant and equipment safety.

“One of our biggest concerns is the lack of guarding on power take-off (PTO) shafts which can turn at thousands of revolutions a minute,” said Mr Forsyth.

“A PTO guard is basically a life-saving device which protects you from getting caught up in the rotating parts which connect a tractor with an attachment like an auger or a slasher.

“If [you're] not using a PTO guard, you’re putting yourself and others at risk of being pulled into the rotating shaft by hair or clothing.

“Most farmers would have a good understanding of what a fast-rotating shaft looks like. You don’t need a lot of imagination to understand what happens when something goes wrong,” he said.

Mr Forsyth is expecting farmers to become busier in the coming months as the state is expecting a bumper crop.

“Things may have been a bit quieter for farmers over winter – now that the days are longer and farmers are gearing up for harvesting, the pressure is really on.

“Now is the time to get safety right. If you’ve been farming for decades, it’s time to start thinking the job through rather than just relying on your skills and experience.”

Aside from inadequate PTO guard, the safety inspections had uncovered a number of safety issues involving plant and equipment, including forklifts, chemical storage, fall hazards, electrical equipment, manual handling, quad bikes (helmets), silos, traffic management systems, and rollover protection on tractors.

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07:39 am, Tuesday 19 October, 2010

Only a small percentage of homes insulated under the Federal insulation program have been affected by fire, the Climate Change Department claims.

The Government axed the insulation scheme after it was linked to deaths of four insulation installers and hundreds of house fires.

Martin Bowles of the Climate Change Department told a Senate committee that 197 house fires were found to be caused by faulty installation of insulation.

He said it is an insignificant figure considering that over 1 million houses were insulated under the Federal scheme.

“One hundred and ninety-seven fires roughly equates to less than 0.02 of a per cent, which is significantly less than what we understand to be the long-term average of those sorts of significant fire issues within insulation,” said Mr Bowles.

The Government is currently inspecting 50,000 houses to check the safety of the foil insulation.

Of the homes inspected, 46 per cent had chosen to have the insulation removed, while 40 per cent had safety switches installed.

According to Mr Bowles, 200,000 more home inspections will likely be completed by the end of 2011.

He said it is hard to set an end date for the rest of the homes since the inspection process is still being refined.

According to the Federal Opposition, the Government is not disclosing full information about the extent of the scheme’s problems.

“I find it astounding that in the thick folder of briefings before you, you don’t have any briefings that give us any other feedback about what these inspections have found aside from the 46-40-14 per cent data,” Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham said.

In a statement, the Government said it will not disclose the number of faulty installations uncovered by the inspections, saying it would create “unnecessary apprehension”. Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt says the refusal is unjustified.

“The Government’s excuse about hysteria if the true reality of the figure were released under the home insulation program is like the police saying we can’t release crime figures because people would panic,” he said.

“The public deserves the truth, the public can handle the truth.”

On Friday, a report by the auditor-general was released, pointing out areas where the Government had shortcomings about the scheme.

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02:07 pm, Saturday 2 October, 2010

The Queensland Government is making its presence felt in the construction industry by auditing hundreds of construction sites across the state.

This move is part of the Government’s initiative to improve the sector’s safety performance.

According to Industrial Relations Minister Cameron Dick, the audit program will be spearheaded by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ) and will focus on  falls from heights.

Mr Dick said inspectors will also look into scaffolding, manual tasks, mobile plant, working with asbestos, fatigue, and licensing.

“Workers in the construction industry deserve to be safe,” he said.

“Workplace Health and Safety Queensland briefed about 90 representatives from the industry today on plans to target falls from height and other hazards over the coming year.

“Unfortunately, accident and injury statistics show that there is plenty of room for improvement within the industry when it comes to safety.

“In particular, falls-from-height claims have jumped from 8 per cent of all claims within the industry five years ago to 14 per cent in 2008-09.

“That’s why WHSQ will be focusing on falls from height over the coming year.”

Mr Dick said about 10 per cent of Queensland workers are employed in the construction sector. Over 4000 serious injury claims are made by construction workers every year. Forty eight per cent of these claims are made by tradespersons, including joiners, plumbers, and electricians.

“To help get these statistics down, the audits will be conducted by experienced inspectors focusing on legislative compliance, assessing health and safety systems and identifying areas for improvement.”

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08:42 pm, Friday 24 September, 2010

WorkSafe inspectors will visit small businesses in Campbellfield next month to find out if they have heeded its message on safety.

The safety blitz, which will be held from October 11 to 15, is part of a WorkSafe campaign focusing on the most common and preventable injuries.

The area was last visited by WorkSafe in October 2009- and the safety watchdog wants to know if businesses have improved their safework systems.

“We’re giving small businesses prior notice that we’re coming – this is done intentionally so they can sit down with workers, go through the potential safety issues, and work out what can be done to eliminate them,” said Ross Pilkington, WorkSafe’s Manufacturing and Logistics Director.

“Once that’s done, we encourage workplaces to put a plan together and get to work putting it into effect.

“It’s in everyone’s interest to do this sooner rather than later. Don’t adopt a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude or wait until a WorkSafe inspector arrives.”

According to Mr Pilkington, the same health and safety issues come up year in and year out for small businesses.

“Time and time again, our inspectors issue notices for the same problems – and often they’re things which are cheap and easy to fix.

“For example, inspectors regularly come across out-of-date first aid kits, overloaded or damaged racking and shelving, electrical cords with exposed wires, and cluttered work spaces.

“We don’t want to be issuing notices to businesses for health and safety breaches – so our advice would be to sort out any health and safety issues before our inspectors knock on your door.”

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03:03 pm, Saturday 18 September, 2010

WorkSafe Victoria inspectors have uncovered a heap of safety breaches in Braeside after conducting an intensive safety inspection.

WorkSafe personnel visited 140 small businesses in Braeside during a five-day safety blitz, and issued 229 infringement notices.

Some of the safety issues found included grinders lacking machine guards, improper storage of dangerous goods, exposed electrical wiring and other electrical hazards.

Ross Pilkington, WorkSafe manufacturing and logistics director, said the inspectors will come back to the area to check if the safety issues were remedied.

“Although we wrote to the businesses and told them we would be visiting, we still had to pull them up on a high number of health and safety issues,” Pilkington said.

“In many cases, the safety solutions were straightforward. But the bottom line is that’s more notices than we should need to be issuing.”

Steve Dargabel of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said the large number of violations discovered was unacceptable.

“Clearly, employers are not doing the right thing,” he said.

“We’ve had serious and fatal accidents in the Braeside area and in my experience these incidents are usually utterly preventable.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think what’s going on in Braeside is unusual or unique – it’s a snapshot of Victoria,” Dargabel observed.

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07:26 am, Saturday 18 September, 2010

The Rockhampton Industrial Magistrates Court has fined a Queensland firm $135,000 yesterday over the death of an insulation installer.

A 16-year-old employee of the company was electrocuted on 18 November 2009 while installing fibreglass insulation in a home in central Queensland.

The teenager was one of four workers killed during the axed home insulation program of the Federal Government. The multi-billion-dollar scheme is also being blamed for almost 100 house fires.

The company was charged with failing to conduct its business in a way that was electrically safe, and failing to ensure its workers had fall protection.

The court heard the company allowed the young man to work without ensuring the home’s electricity was turned off.

It also failed to provide training to workers in first aid in the event of an electric shock.

The court was told the firm did not have specific or documented safety procedures for insulation installation and working at heights.

Rockhampton industrial magistrate John McGrath imposed a $110,000 fine for the electrical safety breach – the biggest fine imposed for a breach of Queensland’s Electrical Safety Act.

Magistrate McGrath also handed down a $25,000 fine for the workplace health and safety violation.

Aside from the fines, the company was ordered to pay costs of $14,794.90.

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03:04 pm, Thursday 16 September, 2010

Safety switches could have saved the life of an insulation installer who was electrocuted in central Queensland last year, Master Electricians Australia (MEA) said.

A 16-year-old man was killed in November 2009 after receiving electric shock in a Rockhampton home in November while installing insulation.

In the court hearing on the young man’s death, the Rockhampton Magistrates Court heard the pre-existing defect in the home’s electrical wiring of the house was the main cause of the accident.

According to MEA chief executive Malcolm Richards, some of the accidents linked to the Federal Government’s insulation program were easily preventable.

“Safety switches are the best defence,” Mr Richards said.

He added that safety switches should be installed on all power circuits in the house.

“The lights, the stove and the hot water as well.”

Mr Richards noted that one in five existing homes have faults in their wiring.

The sentencing of the young worker’s employer will be held tomorrow.

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06:51 pm, Wednesday 15 September, 2010

Tasmania’s Minister for Workplace Relations, has raised concern over a series of electrical incidents being probed by Workplace Standards.

“All of these incidents involve young electrical workers and all had the potential for serious injury,” said Minister David O’Byrne yesterday.

“When it comes to safety we need to make sure that contractors are looking after their young workers and taking appropriate safety precautions. That includes providing appropriate supervision and guidance.”

He warned that failure to comply is a violation of safety laws.

“At best this could mean an on-the-spot fine, at worst, a court appearance and possible prosecution.”

Workplace Standards recently investigated four incidents that involved electrical explosions.

Three incidents involving young electricians working on live switchboards. In another, a supply cable was drilled through.

In one case, a Hobart primary school had to be closed for a day while repairs on the switchboard were made.

In most of the electrical explosions, workers suffered injuries and major repairs to equipment had to be performed.

“Thankfully, the injuries sustained in these accidents were not life threatening but when a young person is taken to hospital with burns, it’s time for the industry to take the issue seriously.”

Mr O’Byrne said four electrical incidents involving young workers is four too many.

“Every one of these electrical explosions has been caused by human error and therefore they are incidents that could have been avoided.”

To curb further electrical incidents, Workplace Standards Electrical Safety Officer Tony Millhouse said they will conduct seminars in October during Safe Work Week.

“I urge contractors to encourage their young workers to attend these sessions,” Mr O’Byrne said.

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