By CASEY NEILL
GREATER Dandenong workplaces have achieved their best safety performance in more than a decade.
WorkCover figures released last week showed there were 1539 claims in the municipality in 2012-13 – the lowest since 2001-02 and an 11 per cent drop from 2003-04.
Claims from the area’s manufacturing sector dropped to 583 in 2012-13, down 24 per cent from 2003-04.
Assistant treasurer Gordon Rich-Phillips said awarness of workplace safety was one of the big drivers behind the drop in claims during a tour of the Dandenong South Bombardier rail vehicle production site last Thursday.
“It’s encouraging to see that employers and employees in the city are working together to make safety their number one priority,” he said.
WorkSafe chief executive Denise Cosgrove also visited Bombardier.
She said embedding safety into workplace culture rather than making it an add-on was important, as was eliminating risks completely rather than working around them.
“The other thing is the sense that people feel like they can speak up if they see an issue,” she said.
Bombardier managing director Rene Lalande said the company’s philosophy was that every accident was preventable.
“We don’t want to disassociate health and safety from anything else we do,” he said.
“It’s part of the business – as important as delivering a train or satisfying a customer or delivering quality.
“Health and safety is everyone’s responsibility.”
Bombardier’s Dandenong South workforce in 24 months has grown from 54 blue-collar workers to about 200.
“We still see growth ahead of us,” Mr Lalande said.
Bombardier site director Ian Evans said this growth was a safety challenge, and the company had to work hard to make its attitude to safety the predominant culture.
It looked to a number of programs within the industry for inspiration and came up with the Be Wise report card.
Workers identify potential risks and report them to their health and safety representative, who takes them to the health and safety committee for action.
The reps also work with a different group within the factory once a month to encourage new ideas.
“The more important thing is we see now the guys are proactively saying ‘this isn’t really a concern, but it’s not the right way of doing it’,” Mr Evans said.
