Exclusive: An interim report by the Federal Safety Commissioner has painted a grim picture of Australian construction sites.
The Hazard 2020 Safety Campaign, launched in October, has been examining the two most common sources of onsite incidents: scaffolding, and mobile plants such as cranes and excavators.
In the eight months to May 2021, 102 incidents were reported from a sample of 559 companies accredited under the Work Health Safety Accreditation Scheme.
Of those, 83 involved mobile plant hazards and 19 involved scaffolding hazards.
Federal Safety Commissioner David Denney said while there had been improvements in some areas, the report uncovered concerning levels of compliance.
Of the audited companies:
- 52 per cent failed to ensure temporary structures (majority scaffolding) were installed by a competent person and verified as correctly installed prior to use;
- 42 per cent failed to ensure scaffold plans were developed when required and changes to the plan were signed off by a qualified person;
- 36 per cent failed to implement safe systems of work for the use of mobile cranes.
“I don’t think we should accept that worksites are and always should be dangerous,” Mr Denney said.
“I think we can and must do better to ensure the safety of all workers on construction sites…”
Roughly one third of reported mobile plant incidents and 26 per cent of scaffolding incidents resulted in serious or life-threatening injuries.
New South Wales recorded the highest number of mobile plant incidents (29), followed by Queensland (16), Victoria (12), Western Australia (9), Northern Territory (8), Tasmania (5) and South Australia (4).
There were no fatalities associated with scaffolding or mobile plant incidents in the reported timeframe.
“I’m pleasantly surprised that there were no fatalities, the fewer fatalities we have across industry the better,” Mr Denney said.
But overall there’s been 26 workplace deaths reported by accredited companies since 2016.
Just this week, a man was left seriously injured after becoming trapped inside a crane basket in New South Wales.
The Federal Safety Commissioner is pushing the construction industry to do more, to keep staff safe.
“These issues aren’t new for industry, they’re issues that have been well known and well reported across a range of different state and territory regulators…for a number of years,” Mr Denney said.
“We are seeing some improvement … but we do need a more concerted effort across industry because ultimately it’s industry’s responsibility to make sure workers go home safely every single day.”
When asked about the best way to mediate the safety risks moving forward, Mr Denney said the commission wouldn’t know precisely until it had data covering the whole Hazard 2020 campaign.
“My suspicion would be that there’s probably a combination of education and awareness raising associated with stronger enforcement,” he said.
