Forklift safety drive in South Australia

South Australia is part of a national campaign to assess and improve forklift safety in the wholesale grocery and fruit and vegetable industries.

The national campaign aims to reduce the rate of incidents and injury from forklift-related tasks such as loading and unloading vehicles. A compliance campaign at targeted sites, with workplace audits, begins in August in South Australia.

Workers compensation statistics show injuries from manual tasks and moving objects in both the wholesale grocery and fruit and vegetable industries impose a considerable financial burden on the Australian economy. South Australian statistics for the period 2005-08 show there were 2800 forklift-related claims, which resulted in total workers compensation costs in excess of $23 million.

The state-wide campaign will specifically look at the safety of forklift truck operations, with SafeWork SA inspectors visiting worksites to assess the initial level of compliance and provide guidance, assistance and, where necessary, enforcement to improve forklift operation safety.

The campaign aims to assist employers to safeguard workers from injury, highlight the importance of systematically identifying hazards in workplaces and implement sustainable control measures to eliminate or minimise incidents. In doing so, the campaign will also help reduce workers compensation costs and other expenses to employers.

Once the outcomes and feedback are collated and analysed, the results of the campaign should be released by March 2011.

The campaign is being conducted under the direction of the Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA), which is the joint national body of Australia’s OHSW authorities that includes SafeWork SA.