WorkSafe Planning Strategic Visits to Quarries
WORKSAFE outline their issues to date and their Business Plan for 2009/2010.
WORKSAFE Victoria has been administering occupational health and safety of Victoria’s quarries for 18 months. During this time, inspectors conducted 231 visits to quarries and issued nearly 300 notices. While the majority of notices issued were Improvement Notices, 18 Prohibition Notices were also issued.
Inspectors found that most quarries have good safety systems, but some sites needed to improve dramatically – at one site more than 20 notices were issued. The main safety hazards related to plant and falls from height. The table below shows where the issues were commonly found.
FOR THE FUTURE
WorkSafe aims to visit every quarry in the state over the next few years. The purpose of these visits is to:
- Increase the quarry industry’s state of knowledge about hazards and controls
- Provide practical guidance on compliance, and
- Enforce compliance, to reduce the likelihood of injury.
Approximately 400 visits are planned for 2009/10. While some of the visits will be response visits (inspectors responding to a complaint or reported injury), quarries with a higher risk of injury will also be targeted. Th e targeting strategy is based on:
- The local knowledge of inspectors
- Past visits undertaken to the site or similar sites
- The type of work being undertaken such as the material being quarried, and
- Overall quarry set-up.
WorkSafe is also targeting companies that manage multiple sites. During inspections, it was found that some companies with multiple sites have detailed and documented systems and procedures in place, but that individual sites may not be complying with the systems.
To accomplish this ambitious plan, the inspection team has been expanded and quarry inspector training has been intensified. Additional guidance material has also been developed, including two guidance notes (Edge protection to haul roads and Fall risk on quarry face) and a Health and Safety Solution (Preventing drivers from falling from dump trucks).
It promises to be a challenging and rewarding year as WorkSafe engages more closely with the quarry industry.
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