Falls from height remain one of the leading causes of workplace injury in Australia. And on a mine site, the equipment most often involved is not a crane or an elevated work platform.
It is a ladder, wheeled out for a five-minute task on a conveyor gantry, a screening plant or a workshop mezzanine, used without the same scrutiny applied to larger access equipment simply because it looks too simple to fail.
Bailey Ladders, an Australian brand that has supplied ladders and access equipment for 70 years, has built its business on treating that basic piece of equipment with more rigour than the market typically does. And the detail behind its duty rating system is a useful reminder of why that rigour matters on a working mine site.
Not all ladders are rated for a workplace
One of the more consequential facts buried in Bailey’s technical documentation is also one of the most commonly ignored on site: a ladder’s duty rating determines whether it can legally be used in a workplace at all.
Bailey’s ladders carry one of three duty ratings: domestic, industrial, or industrial heavy duty professional.
Only ladders with an industrial rating are permitted for workplace use. A domestic-rated ladder brought onto site because it happened to be available is not a lesser safety option. Under Australian standards, it is not a compliant option.
Load rating adds a second layer of scrutiny. Bailey specifies a minimum load rating of 120kg for any ladder used in a workplace — a figure that has to account for the worker’s own weight plus tools and materials, not just the person alone.
Exceeding that rating does not just void the manufacturer’s warranty. It removes the margin of safety the ladder was engineered to provide. And on a mine site where tasks routinely involve carrying tools, parts, or sampling equipment up a ladder, that margin is not incidental.
Fibreglass for a reason, not a preference
Bailey’s product range includes fibreglass ladders specifically for use wherever an electrical hazard exists, a specification that carries direct relevance to mining operations.
A fixed and mobile plant on a mine site runs on high-voltage electrical infrastructure; and maintenance, inspection, and cleaning tasks routinely require access near that infrastructure.
A metal ladder used near live electrical equipment introduces a conductive path that a fibreglass ladder does not, making the choice of ladder material a genuine risk control decision rather than a matter of preference or cost.
Bailey’s ladders and access equipment, including stepladders, extension ladders, platform stepladders, dual-purpose ladders, and order-picking ladders. These are manufactured and tested to Australian standards AS1892 and AS/NZS1576, the standards governing portable ladders and industrial fall arrest systems respectively.
For a procurement or safety team specifying access equipment for a mine site, that certification is the baseline reference point against which any supplier’s claims should be checked.
Access equipment for tasks that do not justify an EWP
Not every elevated task on a mine site justifies mobilising an elevated work platform (EWP).
Bailey’s broader range, which includes modular access systems, order-picking ladders, and industrial work platforms, is built around the tasks that sit between a standard ladder and a full EWP.
The company’s Quick-Shift multi-form ladder and Pro Deck work platform are examples of equipment designed to give workers a stable platform for tasks such as fixed plant inspection, minor maintenance, or cleaning, without the cost and mobilisation time of larger equipment.
That middle tier of access equipment is where a significant proportion of mine site falls from height actually occur — not because the equipment is inherently unsafe, but because it is treated as low-risk enough to skip the inspection and selection discipline applied to larger plants.
Bailey’s own safety guidance is explicit: ladders must be inspected for damage before every use, and a ladder with missing or damaged parts must never be used. These are standards that are easy to state, yet inconsistently applied in practice.
A longstanding brand now backed by a global manufacturer
Bailey Ladders operates in Australia as part of Werner, a global access equipment manufacturer.
Werner gives the 70-year-old local brand the backing of an international supply chain and product development capability while retaining its focus on Australian standards and local dealer network.
For mine site operators reviewing how their most basic access equipment like ladders, platform steps, and order-picking equipment is specified, rated and inspected, Bailey’s duty rating framework and standards compliance offer a straightforward checklist that existing equipment and purchasing decisions can be measured against.
Image Credit: baileyladders.com.au
