Food-for-thought campaign

A CAMPAIGN targeting safe manual labour at food manufacturing plants will be conducted next month in a bid to crack down on unsafe work places.
WorkSafe Victoria will visit food manufacturers and processors from 1 July and issue improvement and prohibition notices where occupational health and safetyt issues are identified.
The director of WorkSafe’s manufacturing, logistics and agriculture division, Trevor Martin, said the industry needed to do more to improve safety.
“There were more than 12,000 workplace injury insurance claims as a result of manual handling injuries in 2006-07,” he said.
“More than 900 were in the food manufacturing sector, accounting for three per cent of the state’s total injury claims.
“Along with repetitive bending and twisting, the lifting of boxes, drums and bags of ingredients cause nearly 40 per cent of manual handling injuries in the food manufacturing sector.
“The average cost to treat and rehabilitate each of these manual handling injuries exceeds $9000.”
Mr Martin said business’ health and safety obligations are well known, as are the means of preventing injuries.
“Materials-handling equipment such as a pallet lifter with a turntable will cost between $1000 and $3000,” he said.
“Mechanical aids can increase productivity while the business costs associated with managing claims and potential legal and reputational issues can be minimised.
“Creating a safer, more productive workplace requires thought and action. Once the process has begun, it needs to be followed through.
“Too often WorkSafe inspectors find that plans have been developed, but not put into effect,” Mr Martin said.
WorkSafe has publications aimed at manufacturers of all types.
They can be found online at www.worksafe.vic.gov.au or by calling the WorkSafe Advisory Service on 1800 136 089.