09/05/2022

SafeWork SA has wrapped up their ‘April No-Falls’ safety campaign which aimed to raise awareness on the dangers of working at height. Over April we released information, advice and data on managing the risk of falls.

31 March 2022, was the launch of the safety campaign ‘Safety standard must rise, for injury statistics to fall’ and the release of the managing risk of falls in residential construction compliance campaign report.

SafeWork SA released a 2-page infographic summary report highlighting the trades most at risk of falls and the most common oversight that causes the risk of falls.

On 7 April 2022, we highlighted the need for PCBUs to ensure that only workers that hold a high risk work licence in scaffolding, undertake any alterations or repairs to a scaffold after a worker sustained serious injured from a fall - Unauthorised alteration to a scaffold leads to serious injury.

On 14 April 2022, SafeWork SA’s falls injury and compliance data across industries for 2021 was released, which showed a 10% decrease in serious injuries reported to SafeWork SA and a 14% increase in the identification of non-compliance - Falls from height continue to be a leading cause of injury to workers.

With the construction sector again reporting the highest number of injuries, the South Australian Construction Safety Alliance (SACSA) developed a working at height safety essential flyer to support the safety campaign.

On 21 April 2022, SafeWork SA developed a health and safety snapshot of 2021 relating to falls from heights in construction.

The snapshot showed that the construction industry contributed 48% of all notifiable serious injuries associated with a fall from height and 86% of identified non-compliances with the residential construction sector most at risk - Workers falling for housing construction.

On 22 April 2022, SafeWork SA held two webinars in collaboration with the Master Builders Association (MBA) and the Housing Industry Association (HIA) on managing the risk of falls in residential construction with 70 people attending the events.

On 28 April 2022, businesses were reminded to ensure that control measures were in place to manage the risk of a fall while loading and unloading materials from flatbed trucks and trailers after our 2021 compliance data revealed a 60% increase in falls - Do not be one that fell off the back of a truck.

SafeWork SA also published new guidance information on the controls necessary to minimise the risk of a fall while loading and unloading materials.

SafeWork SA Executive Director, Martyn Campbell said “SafeWork SA only recorded one notifiable serious injury associated with a fall in April, making this safety awareness campaign a real success”.

“Given the decrease in falls during this campaign, I urge industry to maintain their vigilance in managing the risk of falls, as any fall from height can be a life changing event to a person and their family.”, said Mr Campbell.