Building site safety blitz

HOUSING construction sites in the City of Casey were the first to be targeted as part of a 12-month WorkSafe operation.
WorkSafe visited about 100 businesses and issued 58 improvement notices over the one-week period, requiring businesses to fix health and safety breaches. Another 44 issues were identified, but were able to be dealt with on the spot.
WorkSafe regional director, Melinda Collinson, said the blitz helped raise awareness of the importance of health and safety on domestic construction sites.
“The campaign provided a good opportunity for our inspectors to start a conversation about the importance of safety as many of the businesses were quite receptive to the visits,” she said.
“It was great to see safety was the topic of conversation and to know businesses will walk away from the campaign with an even greater understanding of how to deal with hazards onsite.”
Failure to maintain electrical tools and equipment, to ensure safe access from sites, to provide and maintain site security, housekeeping and work at height were some of the common issues identified by inspectors.
Operation SafeSite will target five suburban and regional areas over the next 12 months. The next blitz is expected to take place in Melbourne’s north later this year.
Inspectors will conduct follow up visits in the coming weeks to ensure businesses have fixed the identified health and safety breaches.
Information on preventing workplace injuries and workers compensation matters can be found at www.worksafe.vic.gov.au or by calling WorkSafe’s advisory service on 1800 136 089.