More than 17,000 claims were reported resulting from injuries according to the statistics reported by WorkSafe Australia. This costs the construction industry some $1 billion in treatment, wages, and other expenses. There are roughly ten trade labourers that are badly injured each single day and would likely make a compensation claim.
The study also found that trade labourers constitute 80% of those injured workers. Two construction workers died last year.
Denise Cosgrove, CEO of WorkSafe, said, “Inspectors visit almost 40 construction sites across Victoria every day and, on average, they find almost 6,500 health and safety breaches every year. That’s just not acceptable". Ms. Cosgrove added, “The number of deaths, injuries and safety breaches prove that everyone – builders, contractors and workers – must do more to make sure workers get home to their families safely every night.”
Most of construction site injuries were the result of inadequate planning, lack of supervision and poor site housekeeping. “The injuries caused on sites are not always life threatening, but are often painful, costly and result in long periods off work,” the CEO said.
Another purpose of this study is to draw the attention of the public to the launching of the Top Tradie Cup. The Top Tradie Cup is a series of weekly competition that tests tradies on their football and workplace safety knowledge. It is designed specifically for smart phones to make it easy for tradies to compete and discuss safety on site.
This will attract tradies and other construction labourers who discuss about workplace safety. Ms. Cosgrove said, “We know that creating a safety culture encourages behaviour change which will ultimately lead to fewer workers being injured on site. Top Tradie Cup will help to create a culture of safety on site, and encourage workers to speak up when they see safety breaches occurring. We know that creating a safety culture encourages behaviour change which will ultimately lead to fewer workers being injured on site."
