9/12/2011
WorkSafe inspectors will visit workplaces as part of a six months blitz targeting the way workers operate machinery in a bid to reduce hazardous manual handling injuries. WorkSafe will visit up to 1,000 Victorian manufactures looking at all aspects of their work including: how materials are stored, transported and loaded into machines; machine operators' posture when using machines and how the product is retreived from the machines.
Worksafe figures show that injurioes to machine operators resulted in more than 700 claims for manual handling last financial year. The average claim cost $52,000 in treatment and rehabilatation costs alone. WorkSafe's Manufacturing, Logistics and Agriculture Director, Ross Pilkington said slips, trips, falls and manual handling tasks - which involves handling boxes, bags and parts, production work and lifting - accounted for 53 per cent of all claims.