Page 130 - Alex Ruscuklic - Complete Works

SAFETY ALLIANCES
SAFETY ALLIANCES
BRIDGE AND GANTRY CRANE GUIDANCE LAUNCH
Mr. Alex Ruscuklic, Business Development Director, Borgers Corporation − Guest Speaker at the July launch
Alex Ruscuklic, Business Development Director of Borgers Corporation, was a guest speaker at the July 31 launch of the WorkSafe handbook: “Working safely with bridge and gantry cranes” – and delivered a few hard-hitting and timely words on the subject.
He spoke passionately about the fundamental need to adopt safer and more sustainable practices throughout the lifting industry, and he urged businesses to assume more responsibility and leadership in bringing about the necessary changes in attitude and behaviour.
and Safety Act and behaved negligently – resulting in people being killed or injured by bridge and gantry cranes.
Maximum penalties of around $1 million for culpable organizations were not inconceivable in serious cases, while illegal breaches by individuals could easily incur substantial fines up to $200,000 – even if no actual “incident” occurred!
“The point is,” Mr. Gray said, “you can put yourself and your employer at risk of prosecution and a significant fine if you are negligent in inspecting and recording.” Sometimes the “housekeeping” is just not good enough and “there clearly needs to be an inspection regime in place” and a “chain of responsibility” operating.
“You are only responsible for what you are contracted to do,” he explained to an audience of manufacturers, suppliers and repairers of bridge and gantry cranes, and there is “a clear obligation to tell you what needs to be done to make things safe”. “But you cannot contract out of liability,” he added, and the bottom line is that “a safe system of work needs to be provided at all times”.
Crane operators can no longer defend their ignorance or risky practices with the unacceptable excuse: “But we’ve always done it like this!”
“The fact that they have been doing something for thirty years doesn’t make it safe – it just means they’ve been lucky,” Mr. Gray said.
According to him, around ninety per cent of reported WorkSafe cases result in a successful prosecution; so “to err on the side of caution” might not be such a bad idea!
Having played a formative part – together with chief engineers at Austin Hoist and Crane – in the actual inception of the new guidance, Mr. Ruscuklic also emphasized the vital importance of reliable qualitative research and information to facilitate “better choices and procurement decisions” in the marketplace.
“Purchasing the cheapest product rather than the best and safest doesn’t pay in the long run, and is false economy, ” he said. Instead, he believes that a steadfast commitment to optimal safety and sustainability standards – as well as the preferred use of superior quality equipment – ultimately leads to increased efficiency, productivity and profitability for prudent companies.
Another speaker on the day, Jonathon Gray, a senior lawyer from WorkSafe’s Legal Services and Investigations Division, talked about the inevitable price you pay for industrial irresponsibility. He warned of the dire consequences when companies failed to comply with the Occupational Health
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