The Formwork Industry is one of the largest employers in the building industry and along with its high risk nature possesses one of the lowest safety records in the construction industry. The Formwork Industry has never had a trade association which represents their interests. The Formwork Industry Association (FIA) has been established by formwork contractors as a need for formwork contractors plus their workers to raise industry standards. It has been difficult or impossible for any single company, no matter how large, to undertake alone the interests of an industry.

The FIA sees issues with the formwork industry with lack of Industry safety awareness, lack of skilled labour, lack of training of workers, no available support to contractors on industry issues, no complying or regulating industry body within the industry so attracting a lot of shonky contractors & workers, which allows the formwork industry to be dragged down as one the worst industries within the construction industry.

The FIA have obtained a huge amount of positive Industry support from all sectors of the building industry, all in favour of supporting the FIA and are willing to assist to work together for the general good of the industry which we represent.

The founding FIA member companies comprise of some most reputable formwork contracting companies within the NSW Formwork Industry. These 5 foundation companies are united and have all been actively involved with the Formwork Industry Consultative Committee and SafeWork NSW since the start 30 November 2016.

The Formwork Industry Association INC has been incorporated on 22 November 2017.

The FIA Board members have been working hard on building the foundations for the first Industry Association representing the Formwork Industry and recently conducted several strategic planning sessions to form the strategic plan for the organisation. Below we highlight the organization's vision, mission and goals.

OUR VISION

To be recognised as the peak industry body representing the safety interests of the Australian Formwork Industry and those associated with it.

OUR MISSION

The Formwork Industry Association (FIA) strives to continuously improve competence and safety across the Formwork industry by bringing the industry together for networking, advocacy and knowledge sharing to raise standards and minimise risk and reduce the number of fatalities and injuries in the industry.

It requires the highest standard of safety skill, integrity and responsibility of all members and companies.

To achieve this the four pillars of our mission are to work collaboratively with the formwork industry, regulators, construction companies and governing bodies to:

• increase the knowledge of and compliance with safety standards of all those involved in formwork and raise industry standards, improve competence and minimise risk across the industry by focusing on safety, training and education awareness,
• advocate proactively and work with governing bodies to improve formwork health & safety and to encourage further research into industry safety issues, 
• to provide a forum for industry based discussion, issue identification and resolution on safety matters in the formwork industry and to facilitate the exchange of technical safety information and resources to members and to the industry in general 
• provide a sustainable association for the future through good governance.
• be an information resource to members and to the industry in general.

OUR GOALS

To achieve success over the next two years, FIA will focus its work across the following key areas:

• Educational Training & Events
  
• Advocacy
  
• First point of reference
  
• Sustainable Association