Safety at Work

Eric Anglès

Feature image is of Mr Shane Webcke.

‘This is a straightforward message, the single most important task to accomplish, is to arrive home safely at the end of the day.’

Workplace Health and Safety

The choices and risks that we take, don’t just affect our own lives, but the lives of our colleagues, our families and our friends. With Christmas and the silly season fast approaching, now is a good time to reassess safety practices and procedures and to remind ourselves of the risks that we face during this busy period.

Queensland Safety Ambassador, Mr Shane Webcke (pictured), football legend, farmer, news reader and family man, knows firsthand the trauma of unexpectedly losing a loved one and not being able to say goodbye.

In creating a film based on the impact of his father’s preventable death beneath an industrial wool press, the Webcke family offer advice on how to stay safe at work.

Mr Shane Webcke took on the role of Queensland Safety Ambassador last year, tasked with raising awareness of the importance of work safety. “I’m honoured to be Queensland’s Safety Ambassador and have the opportunity to influence people’s attitudes to safety at work,” Mr Webcke said. “If I can change just one person’s attitude, then it will all be worthwhile. Dad’s workplace death ripped a hole in our family, so I know firsthand that your loved ones, should be the most important reason for work safety. I hope by sharing my story it will prevent other families going through what mine did.”

This film, published by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, is just one of a suite of resources that seek to change community attitudes to work safety.

To understand more, Suburban Living spent a week with two senior officers from Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, Principal Inspector Peter Westcott and Senior Inspector Jade Sawtell, whom facilitated a safety presentation and the following safety inspections at prominent businesses throughout the South East Queensland region.

True Blue Glass

As a division of Goldline Glass, this company has a safety conscience environment with procedures and training for all facets of their business.

The inclusion of safety inductions, hazard reporting, current first aid training, mandatory protective clothing with procedures and operations for the safe handling, cutting, cleaning, and edging of glass, through to onsite installations, this workplace illustrates a safe and efficient environment.

With their proactive approach to safety and procedures continually being improved upon, they encourage an open forum to discuss hazards and provide swift actions and a safer workplace.

The inclusion of lockout keys on dangerous equipment, prevents unauthorised use by requiring all locks to be removed by their owners, before the operation of this machinery is possible.

With their utility vehicles, the method of transportation of sheet glass and its clamping system, cleverly compensates for inertia and reduces third party damage, whilst in the workshop, rollers are utilised to protect the edge of the sheets, minimising fractures thus increasing, the integrity of the glass.

What is apparent, is the maximum use of space with clearly marked safety zones, greatly reducing risks within this workplace.

With their immovable demand for quality and compliance with Australian Standards, this company, with its membership with the AGGA, GAAQ and Masterbuilders associations, hold safety as its number one priority and it shows.

Senior Inspector Jade Sawtell and Glen Bull

Principal Inspector Peter Westcott with Lockout System

Lindsay Australia

As a division of Lindsay Australia, had prepared a new refrigerated dual trailer Mack SuperLiner truck for its maiden voyage. Prior to its departure, Tanya Mulligan, Melissa Strong and their staff demonstrated the use of an ingenious device for the safe separation of the trailers. By providing their staff a safe way to better perform their work, this patented multi-faceted tool became a reality and will now be sold throughout the world.

Kim Lindsay, CEO of Lindsay Australia, provides his clear vision of safety within his transport, logistics and rural supply companies and has established a Safety, People and Culture (SPC) Team, tasked with providing advice, training, support and resources to every one of their 1,000 employees and additionally, they have created an in-house “LindsayAid” program to support employees in times of hardship or tragedy.

Information Day at Lindsay Transport

King Springs

Hosting four safety events throughout the month of October, Mark King of King Springs has put safety at the forefront of the company agenda.

In support of “safe work month”, Mandy Dalton, Georgia Dziewierz and Michael Whitmore led us throughout their factory to illustrate their safety culture.

With extremely high standards maintained throughout the plant, we noted that no question was too difficult to answer and in the company of our safety advocate, Gavan McGuane, we were amazed at the open dialogue and extensive product knowledge by the staff, which instantly made you feel at ease with this international, family based business. Leesa, with arguably the most important job regarding safety, maintains the work areas in a clean and orderly manner, of which is clearly adopted throughout the workplace.

Safety considerations vary greatly on this site as the cold handling, straightening and manipulation of spring steel rod can exceed forces of 150 ton/m and temperatures exceeding 1,000°C with oil cooling to reduce these forces and maintain tensile strength.

As the nature of these automotive spring manufacturing processes require careful attention, this companies experience has paved the way to better understand and minimise these risks. This impeccable and orderly environment is a testament to the experienced staff and the strength of this facility.

Georgia Dziewierz, Mandy Dalton, Peter Westcott,
Gavan McGuane and Jade Sawtell

Natural Resources and Mines

At the Landcentre, Woolloongabba, a compelling safety presentation was given to key members of the Department of Natural Resources and Mines. In addition, Jed Millen, Safety Advocate, explained his series of unfortunate events that ended his career as a rigger, when the bridge deck he was working on collapsed under his feet and he fell five metres onto the ground, permanently injuring his upper spine vertebrae.

Every year more than 40 people die due to workplace related incidents in Queensland, I want to use my story to encourage a more positive safety culture with workers.”

A deafening silence filled the room as a video, photographs and statistics reminded us of the inexcusable and unacceptable loss of life and limb.

Queensland businesses can request a safety advocate to visit a workplace, free of charge and speak to workers about the importance of safety in the workplace.

Safety advocates share their personal stories of trauma and tragedy to compel workers to prioritise and think about the most important reason for workplace safety, their families.

With presentations to suit your workplace event, 30 minutes is all that is needed to share their story and answer questions from audience members. If your workplace could benefit from a visit from one of our safety advocates, make a request and we’ll be in touch.

Wally Kearnan, Jade Sawtell, Bronwen McVeigh
and Jed Millen