Springvale and Flemington to get WorkSafe inspectors visits

The next round of targeted inspections by WorkSafe begins soon in Springvale and Flemington.
WorkSafe inspectors will visit businesses in Springvale from 20 to 24 July and Flemington from 3 to 7 August.
Teams of up to 10 WorkSafe inspectors will visit as many workplaces as possible over the week of each campaign.
Inspectors will help businesses to identify basic safety issues to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities, help people who have been hurt to return to work, and ensure they have appropriate WorkSafe injury insurance.
WorkSafe will provide businesses with support and information about how to meet their legal obligations.
WorkSafe’s Executive Director, John Merritt, said prior warning of the visits meant employers and workers had time to identify and deal with safety issues.
“Unguarded machines; dangerous manual handling methods; slips, trips and falls; poor storage of chemicals are among the biggest causes of workplace injuries and deaths in Victoria.”
These are the main issues WorkSafe inspectors will be looking at during the visits to Springvale and Flemington.
Mr Merritt said missing the opportunity to make safety improvements or failing to comply with safety Improvement Notices or Prohibition Notices which banned the use of dangerous equipment or dangerous work practices often led to legal action.
“The aim of our campaign is to help businesses make improvements and at the same time build community capability so injuries and deaths are prevented rather than responding to issues after the event.
“Unfortunately many people only respond after there has been an incident, and having ignored warnings in the past.
“Relying on the fact tat you’ve never had problems before or that past incidents were ‘near misses’ means you’ve probably just been lucky. That’s why people need to get their safety management planning and processes up to date, right now.
To get started, WorkSafe encourages small businesses to take advantage of its free and independent three-hour consultancy (details at  www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/smallbusiness) or the new WorkSafe publication ‘12 ways to make small business safer’.