Safety in Focus for Manufacturing Industry

Over the past decade, the manufacturing industry has been identified as a Work Health and Safety priority due to the high-risk nature of work undertaken. This is in an attempt to reduce fatalities due to large numbers or work-related injuries and illnesses.

In February, SafeWork NSW made an announcement of engaging leaders from the industry to establish a culture of safety.

With more than 7% of Australia’s workforce employed in manufacturing, it’s no wonder the workplace regulator wants to improve safety across the industry.

SafeWork inspectors will undertake compliance activities, including random inspections, across manufacturing businesses in metropolitan Sydney and regional New South Wales throughout 2021.

“The manufacturing industry is identified as a national priority to reduce the number and rates of fatalities and serious claims in the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022.”

A Long Road to Improvement

There have been substantial improvements across the industry in the past decade, but there still remains a high number of fatalities and serious claims.

Food product manufacturing sub-industry accounted for the highest proportion of serious claims between 2012-13 and 2015-16, followed by fabricated metal product manufacturing and machinery and equipment manufacturing.

As well as adhering to work safety legislation, manufacturers also need to follow product safety standards and requirements.

The Risks of Ignoring Safety

Primarily, the greatest risk of ignoring safety is the potential for death or injury to occur. The flow on effect is costly. Manufacturers found to be at fault or in breach of safety standards are subject to fines and penalties. When workers are injured on the job, handling workers compensation and treatment costs come into play. Then there’s the time to find and train replacements while your workers are out of action.

The importance of adhering to safety and managing your risk is paramount.

How Pegasus Can Help

This is where Pegasus comes in. As workforce management experts, we can help to manage and maintain the competency and compliance of those working for you. Through this, we can help your organisation to maintain a safe working environment where risk is managed.

An easy way to manage safety within the manufacturing industry is by ensuring your worker’s training is up to date. Pegasus Induction and Learning Management can be tailored to your specific requirements. Our in-depth industry knowledge of legislative obligations across the country allow us to guide you in what is right for your workforce.

We have a selection of ready-to-go courses which can be purchased by you at a one-off cost and tailored to your organisation. Some course you can choose from include Manual Handling, numerous Chain of Responsibility course, and Workplace Safety.

To invest in safety for your organisation, talk to us today.