Up to 200 workers are fatally injured at work and around 120,000 workers are compensated for a serious work-related injury or illness each year.
According to Safe Work Australia data, in 2021-22, the construction industry accounted for 23 of those deaths and 15,600 claims of serious injury and illness.
October’s National Safe Work Month theme – for everyone’s safety, work safely – encourages safety in the workplace and preventing work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities.
CCIWA Work Health and Safety Practitioner Michelle Strother says the theme highlights the various ways individuals and organisations can work together to manage risks at work, and ensure all workers are supported in a safe and healthy workplace.
“Under WHS laws, employers have a duty to manage workplace risks,” she says.
“This involves thinking about risk management and what could happen if someone is exposed to a hazard, and how likely this is to happen.
“We need to work together to minimise risks in the workplace.”
CCIWA will hold a ‘SafeTea’ event in October to encourage workers to talk about WHS at the workplace over a cup of tea. Strother encourages all Members and WA businesses to hold an event at their premises.
Consider discussing topics such as:
- How would you, as workers, like to be consulted on work health and safety?
- Would anyone like to raise any health or safety concerns relating to our work and/or the workplace?
- Introduce your health and safety representative and explain their role and how they input into the safety decisions.
- Describe a safety hazard relevant to your workplace and controls that have been implemented to manage them. Are the controls still effective?
- Discuss where workers can find further information on WHS and procedures.
- If there was one thing you could change about work health and safety in our workplace, what would it be?
In addition, Cancer Council WA is conducting an online survey during National Safe Work Month to measure community experiences of, and attitudes towards, workplace exposure to secondhand smoke and e-cigarette aerosols, UV radiation and diesel exhaust. To participate in the survey (closes on October 31), click here
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