IN NEW South Wales, around 1,100 serious safety incidents occur each year as a result of inadequately guarded machinery.
With around 46% of these injuries occurring within the manufacturing industry, workplace safety authorities across Australia have put their collective heads together and launched a campaign to turn around these concerning statistics, and improve machine guarding in the manufacturing industry.
WorkCover New South Wales is leading the national campaign, designed to reduce workplace injuries by improving the capability of businesses in the manufacturing industry to manage safety risks with operating machinery and equipment.
The initiative is aimed at industry sectors where there is a high usage of plant, WorkCover Occupational Health and Safety Division acting general manager Peter Dunphy told FEN.
“We are working with the industry to try and improve the way that manufacturers install and maintain guarding on their machines, their capacity to identify hazards in the workplace, and the way that the industry manages risk with operating machinery,” Dunphy said.
According to Dunphy, WorkCover NSW will also collaborate with other jurisdictions to release nationally consistent guidance material for machine operators.
The introduction of performance based legislation in 1995 was an important first step in raising the industry’s awareness of machine guarding safety, Plant Safety Solutions principle consulting engineer and machine guarding safety expert Roger Lim told FEN.
“The legislation has moved from a prescriptive to performance-based legislation model where manufacturers, users, and employers are responsible for the safety of machinery under the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” Lim said.
“Prescriptive legislation focused too much on the type of machines, such as presses.
“Performance-based legislation looks at all types of machines, and it does not prescribe how to improve safety, it is up to the employer to assess and determine the proper control in the environment that it is used in.”
Certification standards
Lim encourages workplace safety authorities, in their latest push to improve guarding safety, to consider implementing marking or certification to assist manufacturers in purchasing machines that meet Australian standards.
“Unfortunately in Australia we do not have a form of marking or certification that would assist industry, unlike in Europe where they have a Conformity European (CE mark),” Lim said.
“CE Mark compliance requires the manufacturers of a machine to declare that the machine is built to meet the applicable directives, which are equivalent to Acts and regulations, using the relevant standards.
“This gives the manufacturing industry in Europe a visual indication of the level of compliance of machines.”
Employing a CE Mark style of machine guard compliance would be a very positive step for Australia to introduce, According to Lim.
“Australia already has a Regulatory Compliance C-Tick mark that is applicable to certain types of electrical items and equipment, and the same principle applies to most machinery.
“A compliance mark would be a big positive to assist with the self managed legislation, and it would not cost safety inspectors additional resources to enforce them.
Guidance
“Raising awareness of injury risks and improving the rate of installation and maintenance of adequate guarding on machines is the campaign’s primary aim,” Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) Chair John Watson said.
According to Lim, there is a growing awareness of the current legislation and the requirements of the employer and the manufacturer to provide safer machines, however, manufacturers need more assistance to improve their guarding safety.
“Larger employers have greater resources to address the issues,” he said.
“Machines can come from parts of the world where they can make a product cheaply, but the products may not meet Australian or international standards.”
The latest Australian machine guarding standard, Australian Standard AS4024 part 1 2006, has adopted a number of international standards including ISO, IEC, or EN standards.
“These are the standards used for most of the machine safety products built to European requirements and are identical to the relevant parts of the Australian machine safety standards,” he said.
“This makes it easier for Australian manufacturers to select the right safety component and equipment for different applications.
Risk Assessment
“When buying new machines, manufacturers should ask for an indication or certification of what standards they are built to,” Lim said.
Workplace authorities are trying to ensure that manufacturers are conducting appropriate risk assessments so that their processes properly control the hazards with machinery, according to Dunphy.
“Usually a lot of the risks with machine guarding are simple, so it can be straight forward to look at the assessment process,” he said.
“The level of guarding on a machine should be appropriate to the environment that the equipment is used in.”
As part of the national campaign, workplace safety inspectors in New South Wales will visit around 100 workplaces to provide practical advice and assistance about safety requirements specific to guarding machinery and equipment.
“Workplace visits will also allow us to gain a better understanding of the unique challenges faced by workplaces that undertake manufacturing,” Watson said.
“The campaign is another example of the states working in unison to develop a nationally consistent approach to workplace safety.”
Key contact:
HWSA
HWSA.Secretariat@workcover.nsw.gov.au
www.hwsa.org.au
Add a comment