SAFETY NEWS
We’re working with the nation’s leading safety authorities to bring you the latest guidelines and tools to manage safety in your workplace.
Managing the risk of plant in the workplace
Safe Work Australia has updated the model Code of Practice: Managing the risks of plant in the workplace to include guidance on vehicle roll-aways and safe immobilisation. Vehicle roll-aways – the unintentional movement of a vehicle that has not been properly immobilised – are a major cause of work-related fatalities and injuries in Australia. Roll-aways can occur with cars, forklifts, trucks, tractors and trailers, on worksites, car parks, maintenance yards or when a vehicle is parked on the side of the road. When vehicles that have not been safely immobilised roll away, a person can be hit, crushed, trapped or run over – leading to death or serious injuries. The Code now includes guidance on control measures to prevent roll-aways, including parking on a level surface where possible and using wheel chocks.
A guide to being a safe farming parent
In the six-year period from 1 January 2016 to 21 December 2021 seven Victorian children (all males) died using farm machinery. Three deaths related to the use of quad bikes, one on a rideon- mower, one on a motorbike, one related to being caught under a farm attachment being lowered onto a pallet when it was disconnected from a tractor, and the seventh incident involving a child being run over by a tractor attachment after having made attempts to adjust the attachment whilst the vehicle was moving.
LABOUR hire
Labour hire involves a host organisation using workers from a labour hire agency, for a short period of time. These arrangements are sometimes referred to as “on-hire” or “agency” arrangements. Both the labour hire agency and host organisation have duties to ensure labour hire workers’ health and safety.
Safe Work Australia’s Know Your Duties tool now provides information about duties under the model WHS laws, including duties for host (labour hire) persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) and all workers involved in labour hire arrangements.