By LIA SPENCER
MORE than $31 million dollars in compensation claims have been paid to tradies injured on the worksite in the City of Casey in the past five years.
The City of Casey had 619 compensation claims from 2008 until 2012, making it the sixth highest municipality across Australia for amount of claims made.
The cost of the claims was the fourth highest, totalling $ 31,207,609.
Hume had the highest number of claims in the five-year period with 990, and Melbourne’s cost of claims came in the highest at $43,530,357.
According to recent statistics released by WorkSafe, 10 tradies are injured badly enough every day to make a compensation claim.
In the past five years, more than 17,000 injury claims from the construction industry were reported to WorkSafe, costing almost $1 billion in treatment, wages and other expenses.
Tradies and labourers made up almost 80 per cent of those injured workers.
Tragically, two construction workers lost their lives last year.
WorkSafe chief executive Denise Cosgrove said while the construction industry understood the importance of safety, more needed to be done to prevent injuries.
“Inspectors visit almost 40 construction sites across Victoria every day and, on average, they find almost 6500 health and safety breaches every year. And that’s just not acceptable,” she said.
“The number of deaths, injuries and safety breaches prove that everyone – builders, contractors and workers – must do more to make sure workers get home to their families safely every night.”
Ms Cosgrove said the majority of construction site injuries were caused by inadequate planning, poor site housekeeping and a lack of supervision.
“The injuries caused on sites are not always life-threatening, but are often painful, costly and result in long periods off work,” she said.
The statistics were released at the same time the Top Tradie Cup was launched. The Top Tradie Cup is a six-week competition that tests tradies on their football and safety knowledge. It is designed specifically for smartphones to make it easy for tradies to compete and discuss safety on site.
There are weekly prizes, including footy tickets, Xboxes and vouchers, and a grand prize that include corporate hospitality tickets to one of the biggest footy games of the season.
Brian Welch, executive director of the Master Builders Association of Victoria, said safety was an important issue on any worksite.
“There is still scope for improvement when it comes to safety in the building sector,” he said.
“Tradies will be keen to win the big prize knowing the answers to this quiz will get them there and, coincidentally, improve their safety awareness in the process.”
To find out more about the competition and to register for the Top Tradie Cup, visit: www.toptradie.com.au
