Today, Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation Kevin Anderson announced the commencement of a construction blitz on falls from heights to coincide with October Safe Work Month 2019.

This is the second falls from heights blitz that SafeWork has undertaken since 2018, and follows on from Operation Scaff Safe which commenced on 1 April 2019, tragically the same day that a young worker lost his life and another was seriously injured in a scaffold collapse in Macquarie Park Sydney.

Between 1 April and 30 September 2019 inspectors visited more than 700 sites state-wide under Operation Scaff Safe, issuing 832 notices including $109,000 in on-the-spot fines for falls risks.

Whilst Inspectors observed a slight improvement in scaffold safety since 2018, the level of non-compliance remains unacceptable with 44% of scaffolds having missing planks, ledges or hopups and 36% appearing to have been altered by unlicensed workers.

The construction blitz on falls from heights builds on the work undertaken during Operation Scaff Safe, continuing to focus on scaffolds as well as edges, roofs, ladders, formwork, EWPs and mobile scaffolds.

For practical tips on how to work safely at heights in construction, SafeWork has developed a simple checklist for principal contractors and site supervisors.

For more information, see the SafeWork NSW website working at heights and scaffolding web pages, or call 13 10 50.