Union calls for safety on site

by Joan Williams

A crane toppled, crushing a bobcat at a building site in East Perth last 
Friday. Luckily no one was injured. Union officials were blocked from the 
site.

Joe McDonald, Assistant Secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and 
Energy Union, said such accidents were too common. "We have had four deaths 
in ten days", he said.

The tragic accident which took the life of a worker on a construction site 
using the "tilt up" method in the Perth suburb of Myaree sparked action by 
unionists.

Soon afterwards 2500 building workers marched on State Parliament demanding 
that the Government and WorkSafe WA get busy on safety measures.

Kevin Reynolds, CFMEU State Secretary, has called for a full and 
independent inquiry into the circumstances of the Myaree death. Such an 
inquiry "could lead to the builder and architects being exposed to civil 
action and possible criminal charges".

Mr Reynolds said the union has been calling on the Government for the last 
six months to direct WorkSafe WA to get ahead with on-site safety policing, 
rather than turn up to investigate accidents after they had happened.

"In relation to tilt-up, we want requirements tightened up so that panels 
(of concrete) are not being put up by a team one of whom is a rigger, and 
the rest might have been butchers, bakers or candlestick makers until the 
day before yesterday."

"There should be a specific ticket required for riggers involved in tilt-up 
construction", he added, referring to the method as a "cheap and nasty form 
of building".

Increased penalties should be applied to builders who failed to comply with 
Codes of Practice.

(In tilt-up construction the concrete wall is formed on the ground, with 
"slots" for the steel rods by which the wall is pulled up and anchored.

Unfortunately the worker who was crushed by the falling wall at Myaree was 
not a financial member of the Union. However, it did all it could to help.

A whip around at the rally outside Parliament raised $2000. Nothing like 
the number if the worker had been in a financial member and entitled to 
death and disability insurance.