Issue Date:  -  Thursday, 31 March 2005

Wine industry under the spotlight

The WA wine industry is being put under the spotlight as part of a national occupational safety and health intervention campaign.

WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said today evidence indicated that the wine industry had some specific safety issues that needed to be addressed.

"Inspections have already been done in South Australia, and these have shown that there are some particular areas of concern that the industry should address in a consistent way," Ms Lyhne said.

"Specific problems that have been revealed include falls from heights, electricity, training and induction and guarding.

"A number of inspections have been undertaken by WorkSafe in the Margaret River wine region, and all of these inspections have resulted in the issuing of improvement notices.

"Our inspectors will also be looking at wineries in the Great Southern and Swan Valley in order to cover all the main wine-making areas in WA."

The national intervention campaign for wine producers is being undertaken in all States, using the same checklist.  The aim of the strategy is to pinpoint the areas of concern and then present the results to the wine industry in each State.

"One of the areas of concern our inspectors have identified is confined spaces such as wine tanks," Ms Lyhne said.

"In addition to an apparent lack of appropriate systems of work for confined spaces, inspectors have been concerned at the lack of edge protection or fall arrest systems for the tops of wine tanks, which can be up to nine metres high.

"The wine industry in WA has always been very cooperative in matters of workplace safety, and this current project will identify common and significant hazards in the industry so they can be dealt with."

Media contact:  Caroline De Vaney 9327 8744 or 0408 927563 (media enquiries only).