Victorian news
Build Aware inspections around Ballarat
Joint teams from five government agencies that regulate the building sector have recently conducted 197 inspections over five days on building sites in Ballarat and district as part of the Build Aware campaign, and found most are complying with their legal obligations to protect the environment and ensure workplace safety and community benefit. The five key Victorian government agencies are: the Victorian Building Authority (VBA), WorkSafe Victoria (WSV), Energy Safe Victoria (ESV), Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) and Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV).
Teams from the five agencies found no significant non-compliances but took the opportunity to provide site operators with advice on achieving compliance. Build Aware has been run three times a year since 2016 in city and regional locations and aims to ensure compliance on residential, industrial and commercial building sites. Read more: Mirage News.
2019 WorkSafe Awards - Hurry up, nominate now!
Urgent: nominate your HSR now - entries for the 2019 WorkSafe Awards are open but close at the end of the month.
Now in their 31st year, the awards celebrate the achievements of businesses and individuals that improve health and safety in the workplace and support workers who have been injured on the job. They're also a great way for workplaces to share their success and show how they are leading the way.
Of greatest interest to us is the Health and Safety Representative of the Year Award - if you've got a great HSR, then nominate them now to show how much you appreciate what they do! Entries close May 31st - so there's not a lot of time to think about it. Enter here.
WorkSafe looking for inspectors
WorkSafe Victoria is establishing an infrastructure project inspection team and needs to recruit more construction inspectors. Applications close May 22. As well as construction inspectors, the regulator has also advertised a number of multi-disciplinary inspectors in locations including Melbourne; the South West Coast and Shepparton/Gouldburn Valley. If you're interested, you can attend an information session at 4.15 at WorkSafe's Melbourne CBD office on May 16 - find out more here. Check out the job ads here. and here.
Safe Work Australia news
Fatality statistics
There has been no update since April 28, at which time 51 fatalities had been notified to Safe Work Australia - as reported in our last edition. The workers killed have come from the following industries:
- 19 in Transport, postal & warehousing
- 13 in Agriculture, forestry & fishing
- 7 in Construction
- 7 in Public Administration & safety
- 3 in Electricity, gas, water & waste services
- 2 in Mining
To check for updates, and for more details on fatalities since 2003, go to the Safe Work Australia Work-related fatalities webpage and in particular, here.