THE HEADS of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) is aiming to reduce injury rates resulting from manual materials handling tasks such as loading and unloading vehicles.
The national campaign with target the wholesale, transport and storage industries. It will also look specifically at the road freight industry and its interface with the supply chain.
The campaign will build on preliminary studies carried out by WorkSafe Victoria, which found loading and unloading vehicles to be a significant health and safety issue. It will aim to assist workplaces in reducing injury and therefore compensation costs.
National injury statistics for the period 2005-06 show the national claim rate for road freight transport and road freight forwarding was 10.6 per 1,000 workers in comparison to a claim rate of 7.0 claims per 1,000 workers for all muscular stress claims in the retail, wholesale, transport and storage industries combined.
The 18-month campaign will include a survey of transport industry workers and employers in November 2008. These findings will be used to assist in developing appropriate information tools and products.
Early 2009 will see an education campaign involving site visits and workshops. Workplace audits will then be conducted in late 2009.
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