As part of OFSC’s Hazard 2020 safety campaign, over the past year we have hosted a series of educational webinars on managing high-risk hazards onsite. This trial initiative has featured presentations from industry experts and Federal Safety Officer guidance on managing common construction hazards within the requirements of the WHS Accreditation Scheme (Scheme). Online attendance during these webinars grew substantially throughout the year, reaching 500 for the most recent webinar. Attendees are able to submit questions throughout the session, which are answered by our panel of experts. The following webinars are available online:

Secondary Safety Systems for Elevated Work Platforms

The webinar highlighted CPB Contractors’ experience with a range of secondary safety systems for Elevated Work Platforms (EWPs). With feature presentations by Graeme Silvester and Nathan Kiepe of CPB Contractors, Andrew Delahunt of the Elevating Work Platform Association and Federal Safety Officer Brett Jones.

Scaffolding Risk Management

The webinar focused on Probuild’s successful approach to scaffolding risk management. Josephine Taylor from Probuild and Luke Andonopoulus from Scaffshield presented their experience in protecting against scaffold tampering. Federal Safety Officer Ralph Wilson discussed Scheme requirements pertaining to scaffolding and scaffolding management principles.

Articulated Cranes

The webinar focused on raising awareness of risks associated with articulated mobile cranes (colloquially called Frannas). Rory Bracken and Tom Clarke from Fulton Hogan and Brandon Hitch from the Crane Industry Council of Australia (CICA) presented on articulated mobile cranes with particular emphasis on load calculations and capacity deration for side slopes and crane articulation. Federal Safety Officer Julian Bedford discussed mobile crane risk management in relation to the Scheme audit criteria. This webinar is a must see for anyone working with an articulated mobile crane on site.

Ground Conditions for Crane Risk Management

The webinar focused on how to assess ground conditions and load distribution to mitigate the risk of mobile cranes tipping over. Alice Edwards from CICA and Nick Morris from Boom Logistics presented on ground bearing capacity for crane stability. Federal Safety Officer Craig Hutton presented on managing and evaluating ground conditions for crane work in relation to the Scheme audit criteria.

The Hazard 2020 safety campaign

Hazard 2020 was a 12-month campaign targeting mobile plant and scaffolding hazards – the most common causes of non-compliance with Scheme requirements and onsite safety incidents reported by Scheme accredited companies. Throughout this campaign, the OFSC has conducted over 300 onsite audits of builders accredited under the Scheme, where scaffolding and mobile plant hazards have been reviewed. Fact sheets, video case studies, monthly data reports and webinar presentation videos are all available on the Hazard 2020 page. End of campaign data and a final report will be forthcoming, also published on the OFSC website.

Next webinar

The final educational webinar for this year is being held on Wednesday 24 November. It will focus on lift planning for mobile cranes. Industry professionals interested in attending can request an invite by emailing fscreporting@dewr.gov.au.

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