Last week (28 April) marked Worker’s Memorial Day — which pays tribute to Australians who have died as a result of work-related accidents, incidents, and diseases.
The day recognises the vital contribution and achievement of Australian workers to the building of the nation.
As such, the Queensland Government is delivering its commitment for Queensland workers to have adequate protections, fair conditions, and a safe workplace.
Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jarrod Bleijie says that one life lost at work is one life too many.
“Every person should feel safe at their workplace and have the expectation they will return home safely at the end of the day,” Bleijie says.
“It is so important that everyone in the workplace thinks about the role they can play in keeping workers and the public safe.”
This year’s theme for World Day for Safety and Health at Work — which also falls on Workers Memorial Day — focused on the impacts of digitisation and artificial intelligence on workers’ health and safety.
In modern times, the psychosocial risk to a workforce has become more of a focus.
As Mining.com.au previously reported, feedback and insights from ACT Australia’s production of ‘The Slip: What Good Looks Like’ late last year showed that 99.5% of all participants found value in learning about safety culture and leadership through live theatre storytelling.
Additionally, 99.3% of all participants believe they can apply lessons from the production to their workplace, and 97% found it relevant to their workplace.
This year alone, there have been 32 worker deaths recorded in Australia, with one of them being related to the mining sector, as reported by Safe Work Australia. Last year, 168 worker deaths were recorded with 11 of them being in mining.
On average, over the past five years 191 workers were killed each year at work in Australia.
Safe Work Australia says that the mining industry has made improvements in health and safety over the last decade, reducing the incidence rates of fatalities and serious injuries.
In early April, the Queensland Government revealed its plans to restore its resources safety framework through appointing an interim Commissioner for Resources Safety and Health, as well as the launch of a comprehensive review into the state’s health and safety regulatory model.
The review seeks to look at the role of the regulatory and whether any modifications to the existing model or any alternative model will be more effective in ensuring and improving resources safety and health outcomes.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Glencore
