WORKPLACE injuries and exposure to dangerous chemicals have been identified as serious concerns in Western Australia’s hospitality industry following a two-year Worksafe inspection program, with more than 1300 notices being issued.
WorkSafe inspectors carried out inspections at a total of 225 workplaces, including a large number in the Peel and Murray regions.
Improvement notices were issued for 1364 “areas of concern”, while nine prohibition notices were issued.
WorkSafe acting executive director Joe Attard said today the restaurant and café sector had been identified as a sector with a high rate of lost time injuries.
“Over the five-year period 2009/10 to 2013/14, employees in restaurants and cafés in WA suffered more than a thousand injuries that required them to take time off work,” Mr Attard said.
“Of these, 190 were severe injuries that kept the employee off work for 60 days or more, a statistic that we felt warranted inspectors taking a closer look at the sector.
“Restaurants employ a high number of young workers and have a relatively high turnover of employees. Many of these young workers are students on overseas working visas.
“This combination of young workers and high turnover of staff makes issues such as adequate training a high priority, especially when it comes to manual tasks, slips, trips and falls, burns, knife safety and the use of hazardous substances.”
Of the 1363 notices issued, the greatest number – 498 – related to training and labeling on hazardous substances.
Another 375 notices were issued form emergency precautions, such as evacuation procedures and first aid facilities.
“These are all serious safety issues in workplaces, and for that reason we will maintain contact with the sector and monitor its statistics, and seriously consider further inspection programs in related sectors within the Food Services industry,” Mr Attard said.
“The primary aim of all WorkSafe’s proactive inspection programs is to provide employers with information on how to make their workplaces safer and, as a consequence, reduce work-related injury and illness.
“However a large number of notices were issued during this inspection program, so we will need to monitor compliance levels in this industry into the future.
“We continue to firmly believe that raising awareness with proactive inspection campaignsis the best way in which to lessen the risk of work-related injury and illness.”
