SOUTH Australia will participate in a national campaign to assess and improve forklift safety in the grocery wholesale and fruit and vegetable wholesale industries.
According to SafeWork SA, the national campaign aims to reduce the rate of incidents and injury from forklift-related tasks such as loading and unloading vehicles.
As part of the campaign, South Australia will see a compliance campaign targeting particular sites with workplace audits beginning this month.
Work safety organisations say workers compensation statistics show injuries from manual tasks and moving objects in both the grocery wholesale and fruit and vegetable wholesale industries impose a considerable financial burden on the Australian economy.
In South Australia, statistics for 2005 to 2008 show 2,800 forklift truck related claims, which resulted in total workers compensation costs in excess of $23 million.
The state-wide campaign will specifically look at the safety of forklift truck operations, with SafeWork SA inspectors visiting work sites to assess the initial level of compliance, provide guidance, assistance and improve forklift operation safety.
The campaign aims to assist employers to safeguard workers from injury, highlight the importance of systematically identifying hazards in workplaces and implement sustainable control measures to eliminate or minimise incidents.
Once the outcomes and feedback are collated and analysed, the results of the campaign will be released by March 2011.
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