Forklift Blitz

Safe Work Inspectors will be commencing a forklift blitz shortly in NSW. We recommend a toolbox talk or pre-shift meeting with workers to highlight the need for separation of mobile plant and pedestrians and in particular, who has right of way and in what area. This could also draw in the chain of responsibility obligations. It would also be timely to do a refresher of safe work method statements, safe operating procedures, and pre start checks, for mobile plant operations and to test knowledge against the site traffic management plan.

Operation Scaf Safe

SafeWork NSW is currently running Operation Scaf Safe. It is one focus of SafeWork’s Towards Zero Falls From Heights Campaign which will run until 2022. SafeWork Inspectors are visiting sites across NSW to ensure businesses and operations understand the safety requirements involved in creating a safe environment for workers using scaffolding and working from a height. This follows a compliance blitz in 2018 where almost 50 per cent of scaffolding inspections were found to be non-compliant. 1,258 notices were issued, including 93 risk-of-falls related and on-the-spot fines, totalling $265,680.

We recommend a toolbox talk or pre-shift meeting to highlight the need for workers to ensure scaffolding components are in place before commencing work and not to remove or alter scaffolding components which can only be undertaken by an accredited scaffolder. A site inspection with a scaffolder to check compliance of current structures is also recommended. It is also timely to check handover certificates, scaf tags, and safe work method statements.

Court Action

A recent prosecution of an Importer and Director of electrical equipment, fined $1 million and $200,000 respectively, for multiple category 2 safety breaches highlights the need for business to be mindful of upstream safety obligations of designers, manufactures, suppliers and importers (OEM) and the interface and importance of consultation obligations.

A Queensland woman suffered fatal injuries when she touched a submersible pump in her backyard well. The pump was one of hundreds purchased from a Chinese manufacturer, which did not comply with Australian Standards, was substandard in design and manufacture and sold online in Australia.

Takeaway

Anyone who imports electrical goods for sale in Australia must ensure the goods meet Australian Standards and are tested to be electrically safe. This becomes more critical for businesses that purchase plant and substances direct from overseas and particularly online, for their own use and not resale, as they effectively stand in the shoes of the OEM.

Besides compliance with Australian standards a further imperative is that the OEM must ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the plant and substance is safe and without risks to health and safety and used for a purpose for which it was designed or manufactured and that it comes with adequate information concerning the assembly, commissioning, operation, use, storage, cleaning, repair, maintenance, dismantling, decommissioning, and disposal and any reasonably foreseeable activity (activities).

Duty holders should carefully examine accompanying documentation and data to ensure that it is up to date and applicable and as necessary contains results of analysis, calculations, examination and testing necessary for the safe performance of the activities set out above. In the absence of that information it should be requested.

Contact

K&L Gates has an extensive full service offering in work health and safety across Australia. If you would like to discuss these cases and implications for you and your business further, please contact us.

John Makris
Partner
+61 2 9513 2564
john.makris@klgates.com