Results of SafeWork SA SWMS compliance audit
SafeWork SA have released a report following their 2020 Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS) compliance audits.
Construction workers after exposed to a wide variety of risks, and the construction industry frequently records high rates of injury and death among workers. As a result, the construction industry has been marked as a priority in the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022.
SWMS are an important part of any high-risk construction work, and help construction workers identify and mitigate risks. It is because of this that SafeWork SA conducted a SWMS compliance campaign earlier this year.
SafeWork SA’s Executive Director Martyn Campbell had this to say:
“The identification and control of risks in the construction industry is a priority focus area for us.
“The release of this report coincides with the recent signing of an enforceable undertaking where a PCBU has committed to spending $93,500 after a worker received serious injuries while undertaking a high risk construction work activity.”
“Every construction company, worker and stakeholder can play a role to eliminating or reducing these risks as low as reasonably practicable.”
66 compliance audits were conducted by SafeWork SA, 29 of which were projects with a principal contractor in control of the workplace.
The audits saw 64 statutory notices issued as a result of non-compliance. 47 of which were improvement notices, and 17 of which were prohibition notices.
SafeWork SA found that the most frequent areas of non-compliance were failure to prepare a SWMS before conducting high-risk work, and failure to implement adequate control measures to prevent workers falling more than 3 meters.
