Asking ‘why?’ about incidents several times and answering, ‘because … ’, inevitably leads to the answer, ‘culture’—the climate of practices, values, accountability and communications pervading in an organisation, summed up in the phrase, ‘the way we do things around here’.

When construction clients demonstrate a commitment to a strong project safety culture, and establish a team responsible for safety leadership from the outset, our analysis shows a significant reduction in costs, time and allocated resourcing for the project. Client Safety Leadership also minimises the residual costs associated with occupancy safety issues once construction is completed.

Once dedicated teams of safety advocates with a diverse range of skills have been enlisted, procedures should be developed. The team should be authoritative, providing a single, unambiguous contact point for safety matters with clear responsibilities. This can be achieved by the formal appointment of a senior level representative of the client as chairperson.

Free COVID 19 Resources. Interactive Construction Audit Tool

Construction, Trades and Allied Industries.

We are continuing to prepare a series of resources to assist our clients with the management and control of COVID 19 in the workplace.

Continuing with Construction, the team has prepared a Construction Audit Tool for COVID 19. We cover the recent advisories from Safe Work Australia, WorkSafe Victoria and the Master Builders. The audit tool is a web based, interactive tool with check boxes.

This is a user friendly tool designed to be conducted digitally directly on site. 

You can view and use the Construction COVID 19 Audit Tool here in a web browser.

Free COVID 19 Toolbox Resources.

Safe Work Australia has published new information and resources on COVID-19 and work health and safety. Under the model work health and safety laws, employers have a duty of care for the health and safety of their workers and others at the workplace. The new information includes: Information for workplaces Information for small business Information for workers What to do if a worker has COVID-19 - infographic New information on minimising the risk of exposure to COVID-19 is also available for specific industries: Building and construction Retail work Taxi and ride share services Office workers Delivery drivers Road freight Agriculture Safe Work Australia will continue to update these web pages and resources to provide the latest information to workers and employers on work health and safety and COVID-19. For more information, go to the COVID-19 Information for workplaces.