Tradie National Health Month

Health and wellbeing for trades

The month of August was Tradies National Health Month, and it was WorkSafe Victoria’s (WSV) aim to help to raise awareness about the importance of tradies health and wellbeing and provide free tools and resources for leaders in trade-based industries.

This year, WSV was focusing on the prevention of hazardous manual handling and falls from height. These issues continue to greatly impact workers across Victoria and cause life threatening injuries to workers in the construction industry.

Hazardous Manual Handling

Manual handling can be a necessary part of getting the job done at many workplaces. Where manual handling involves repeated, sustained high force, sustained awkward posture, repetitive actions, or unstable or unbalanced loads, the work can become hazardous.

Hazardous manual handling is the largest cause of injury at Victorian workplaces. It can cause a range of serious injuries, known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) including sprains and strains, back injuries, soft tissue injuries, hernias or chronic pain.

MSDs account for 30% of injuries sustained by Victorian construction workers. They can range in severity from a temporary strain, right up to debilitating injuries. They can end careers, impair a person’s physical and mental health and their quality of life long-term.

Providing ‘how to lift’ training, like basic instructions to bend your knees and keep your back straight is not effective in reducing injury risks. This type of training does not control the source of risk. Employers must try other risk control measures to keep their workplace safe.

Falls from Heights

Falls from even moderate heights can leave workers with permanent and debilitating injuries. The risk of serious injury or death from a fall increases significantly if you are working at heights over two metres. Employers have a duty to ensure their workplace is safe, and this means controlling the risk of falls from any height.

Falls remain one of the leading causes of death and serious injury in Victoria’s construction sector:

Over the past 10 years there have been 17 construction workers killed due to falls.

Over the past 5 years more than 6,400 construction workers have needed workers’ compensation for serious injuries from a fall; many of these injuries have been life changing

Falls that cause the greatest risk of death or injury include those resulting from:

• Using unsafe or incomplete scaffolds
• Inappropriate ladders/ladder use
• Falling from or through roofs
• Falling from trucks
• Falling into holes, pits or shafts
• Accessing shelving
• Accessing mezzanine areas

To understand how to keep your workplace safe from the risk of falls, hazardous manual handling or for tools and resources, visit https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/tradie-health-month