Issue Date: -
Monday, 12 February 2007
National campaign looks at labour hire in food manufacturing
Workplace safety authorities across Australia and New Zealand have launched a coordinated campaign to look at the safety of labour hire workers in the food manufacturing industry.
Beginning next month, the WA campaign will see WorkSafe focusing on the high-risk meat industry and the labour hire agencies that place workers in the industry.
WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said today that labour hire workers are more likely to be injured at host employer workplaces than direct employees.
“Workplace safety authorities across Australia and New Zealand have agreed that the high number of injuries warrants a national campaign that concentrates on educating both the labour hire and food industries on how to improve standards of workplace safety,” Ms Lyhne said.
“An important part of improving these standards is to provide information to host employers and labour hire agencies on how they can jointly manage occupational safety and health.
“WorkSafe has worked closely with the labour hire and meat industries over recent years to improve safety, but a relatively high number of meat industry workers are still being injured.”
Over the four years from 2000/01 to 2004/05, 334 WA meat workers were injured seriously enough to miss at least 60 days of work.
The meat industry has the highest number of injuries in the food manufacturing industry, with 419 lost time injuries in WA in the 2004/05 financial year resulting in 19,984 working days lost to injury.
The national campaign will begin this month with an education phase during which information will be provided to both the meat and labour hire industries to help them understand their responsibilities and assist them to ensure a safe work environment.
Inspectors will then visit around 230 premises across Australia and New Zealand from March to May to verify the levels of compliance with legislative obligations.
The campaign will focus on a number of areas including:
Making sure that labour hire agents are familiar with the risks at host workplaces;
Checking that induction and task-specific training is provided by both the agent and the host employer;
Confirming that the placement of labour hire workers is appropriate; and
Ensuring effective consultation is in place between the agent and host employer.
“The campaign is aimed at protecting labour hire workers and educating both labour hire agencies and the WA meat industry to jointly ensure the safety of labour hire workers,” Ms Lyhne said.
“It is an excellent example of cooperation between the States, and another important means of ensuring national consistency in workplace safety and health.
“WorkSafe has published national guidance material in the form of a Bulletin for labour hire agents on managing the safety of labour hire workers, and also has a Bulletin aimed at host employers.
“Resources do exist for obtaining further information, and I encourage all relevant workplaces to become familiar with the material.”
Further information and the guidance material can be obtained by telephoning WorkSafe on 9327 8777 or on the website at www.worksafe.wa.gov.au.