Securing worksites ahead of severe weather

Businesses in the Northern Territory are being warned to secure their worksites as cyclone season commences.

In previous years, a number of serious near misses have occurred at unsecured worksites, including steel planks being blown from scaffolding and sections of temporary fencing collapsing during thunderstorms.

Rob Fereday, NT WorkSafe’s Manager WHS Assurance, said businesses should start cleaning up worksites now to secure loose items, and urged the residential construction sector in particular to take action.

“Given the close proximity some of these worksites are to people’s homes, it is vital worksites are secured to reduce the risk of injury or property damage due to objects becoming airborne and becoming a hazard,” Fereday said.

“I again remind residential construction sites that are winding down work for the year to ensure site security to prevent unauthorised access, and to have the principal contractor’s contact details displayed in the event of an emergency.

“It’s disappointing that despite months of work by my team providing information and advice to this industry, a number of issues of non-compliance were identified in a recent compliance blitz where we had to issue improvement notices.

“Site security was the main issue with six instances of non-compliance, followed by lack of toilets and facilities for workers, lack of principal contactor signage and housekeeping,” Fereday said.

“WorkSafe inspectors will continue to monitor these worksites and will not hesitate to issue infringement notices if the non-compliance continues.”

Image credit: iStock.com/whitemay. Stock image used is for illustrative purposes only.