Why OHS procedures on the worksite are more important than ever

In the wake of two building site accidents last week during Sydney’s wild wind storms, the importance of OHS procedures on a worksite can’t be stressed enough.

Winds of up to 104 kilometres per hour were recorded, causing catastrophic damage across the city, including two separate incidents where walls fell down in construction sites, injuring one worker and tragically killing another. The accidents serve as a reminder to all of us in the building industry, just how vital it is that we put in place and adhere to the correct OHS procedures.

If you’re responsible for a construction or development site, you need to be sure that your knowledge of work health and safety duties is up to scratch. You need to be aware of the most common worksite injuries that occur (cuts and open wounds, sprains and strains and chronic joint or muscle conditions). It’s also your responsibility to assess the work health and safety risks, and that the appropriate precautions are taken to avoid injury to your workers.

All the workers on your site also need to have completed an introductory safety training course called ‘general construction induction training’. This is also commonly known among people in the industry as ‘white card’ training. Ensuring your workers have this certification is also your responsibility as it ensures that they know how to react in particular situations where there are risks to injury.

This of course, is just the tip of iceberg when it comes to the Australian work health and safety standards. For more detailed information on specific guidelines and requirements, as well as specific case studies, visit the Safe Work Australia website here.

If you’re looking for some handy advice, Work Safe Victoria has put together a useful checklist for builders and building trades contractors to help assess the adequacy of health, safety and amenities on new construction sites.

Once you’ve got your knowledge about the standards and requirements under control, you should be considering options for health and safety signage throughout your construction or development site.

Here at Mesh Direct, we’re passionate about ensuring that the workers in our industry are as safe and protected as possible. Which is why we also offer a range of products that can be utilised for safety and directional signage throughout your construction site.

Our corflute signage is ideal for these kinds of signs, it’s also referred to as corrugated plastic signage or corriboard and is a rigid, flat substrate which is highly versatile. It can be applied virtually anywhere and is easy to install on any structure including walls, fences and hoarding.

For more information on any of our signage solutions, get in touch here, or give us a call on 1300 368 978.