By Charlene Macaulay
Don’t cut corners in the workplace and get home safely this silly season.
That’s the message from WorkSafe, which is calling on employers and employees to make safety a priority in the final weeks of 2018.
According to WorkSafe statistics, more Victorian workers die in the weeks leading up to Christmas than at any other time of year, with more than 22 per cent of all workplace fatalities in November and December.
This year, 896 injury claims were logged between January 1 and October 31 in Wyndham, up slightly from 848 incidents over the same period last year, with musculoskeletal injuries – typically caused by manual handling tasks – topping the list.
Among the reported incidents were:
•A worker in Werribee injured his leg when he lost his footing and landed on a fence nail;
•A 17-year-old apprentice accidentally shot himself in his hand with a nail gun at a Point Cook construction site;
•A Point Cook worker was carrying a piece of plasterboard when it broke and a jagged edge gashed his leg open, requiring 15 stitches; and
•An electrical worker in Werribee received electrical flash burns to his hands and arms when he was removing a top cover of a high-voltage cabinet.
WorkSafe health and safety executive director Julie Nielsen said busy workloads and tight deadlines at this time of year were no excuse for workplaces to cut corners on safety.
Ms Nielsen said last year five families lost loved ones in workplace accidents over November and December.
“There is no situation where getting a job done is more important than coming home safely at the end of the day,” she said.
