National falls prevention campaign finds improvement in regional areas
Issue Date: - Wednesday, 17 September 2008
A national inspection campaign focusing on the prevention of falls in construction has found that compliance with fall prevention legislation has improved in regional areas.
The campaign - conducted in February and March this year across Australia and New Zealand – looked at a total of 1044 construction sites in metropolitan and regional areas.
WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said today that the improvements uncovered by the inspection campaign were pleasing.
“Most of the improvement was reported by regional inspectors, and it applied equally to housing and small commercial construction,” Ms Lyhne said.
“The campaign found there had been an overall improvement in falls prevention, particularly within multi-storey housing, and especially in regional areas.
“But the construction industry should not get complacent about falls prevention because there is still a long way to go.
“Despite the improvements, only 35 per cent of the sites inspected were fully compliant with the laws governing falls prevention, and inspectors detected and had rectified 1231 cases of non-compliance while they were at the sites.
“Falls are one of the most significant causes of workplace death in the construction industry, with an average of two deaths and around 1200 injuries – many serious and permanent – each year in WA.
“It has been agreed that a further inspection campaign will be conducted in four years’ time to measure the progress made in falls prevention.”
A code of practice on falls has existed in WA for 17 years, and the Australian Safety and Compensation Council is currently considering submissions on a draft National Code of Practice for the Prevention of Falls in Housing Construction.
“The main aim of these proactive inspection campaigns is to provide employers with information on how to comply with the laws, and also to identify any common problems that exist in the industries targeted,” Ms Lyhne said.
“They are also an excellent example of co-operation between the States to ensure a consistent approach across Australia and New Zealand.”
The Code of Practice on the Prevention of Falls in Workplaces can be downloaded at no cost from WorkSafe’s website at www.worksafe.wa.gov.au.