29 March, 2024
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MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE TO KEEP WORKPLACES SAFE

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The recent spate of deaths and serious injury through incidents involving forklifts, including two in a fortnight in May is proof that more needs to be done to keep NSW workplaces safe.

One death in the workplace is one death too many. After the so-called blitz on forklift safety in September last year, shockingly figures showed there was an WHS incident involving a forklift every day, six days a week, with five of these incidents resulting in a fatality.

Minister Petinos is also continuing to refuse to follow former Supreme Court Judge Justice Robert McDougall’s recommendation of over a year ago to set up a review of Safework following multiple submissions outlining concerns about Safeworks ability to ensure compliance to workplace safety laws.

“The situation with NSW Safework is concerning and the Minister needs to immediately step in and undo the NSW Government so called “reforms” to Safework that have in actual fact made workplaces less safe than ever’ Ms Cotsis said.

NSW Labor has been concerned about the ability of SafeWork NSW to ensure NSW workplaces are safe for some time.  Information obtained by the NSW Opposition that Safework inspectors are at an all-time low with a shocking 17 per cent of inspector roles unfilled –  62 roles vacant as of 20 January this year .

“The Minister’s statement that 30 inspectors will visit workplaces for forklift compliance safety checks would be good news if it wasn’t for the fact that 62 roles are currently vacant or unfilled and this shortage means they will be taken from other important roles in an already overstretched system “said Sophie Cotsis, Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations and Work Health and Safety.

“This has serious implications for workplace safety”.

“The Government needs to immediately hire more inspectors and report to the Parliament about their roles and inspections undertaken” she said.

Of most concern is that the Minister is no longer providing answers to questions such as how many inspections occurred after requests for inspections after serious incidents, instead reporting on “interactions” which include Facebook likes of SafeWork website.

“Not reporting on basic information like how many inspectors followed up on requests for help is completely unacceptable and an undermining of the whole spirt of the Work Health and Safety Act’ said Ms Cotsis.

The McDougall Report recommended that ‘the responsible Minister for SafeWork NSW should conduct… a public review of that agency’s performance of its regulatory and educational functions… and that review should be made publically available once completed”.

SOPHIE COTSIS MPSHADOW MINISTER FOR WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY

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