Page 30 - Australasian Paint & Panel Magazine Mar-Apr 2021

OH&S Vans
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PAINT&PANEL MARCH / APRIL 2021 WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
GETTING HIGH SAFELY
WHILE THE BURGEONING VAN MARKET OFFERS EXTRA REVENUE OPPORTUNITY IT ALSO OFFERS EXTRA OH&S RISKS, SAYS GARY WILLCOX OF MONIT.
vans on the road means that T many shops are finding
themselves repairing larg- er vehicles without under-
standing the extra risk they present in the workshop.
Without going through all the risks, there is one in particular which is head and shoulders above the rest — working at heights.
Let’s face it, there is no
such thing as a safe distance
to fall from and gravity never
takes a holiday. My own father
fell off a small stepladder and
never returned home from hospi-
tal. He actually fell on my mother who still complains about it to this day.
Sometimes there are obstacles be- tween us and the ground which we wished weren’t there and hitting the ground and nothing else on the way down becomes a blessing.
Regardless of the circumstances, hav- ing a fall can result in anything from
There is no such thing as a safe distance to
fall from and gravity never takes a holiday.”
embarrassment to death, which if you apply the law of averages, the injuries are somewhere in between.
In Australia there are over 20 pro- cessed claims per day where a worker has fallen and needs to take more than a week off work with the average time off being six weeks and costing around $14,000 per claim. In fact, deaths from falls is the third highest cause of death in
HE RISING NUMBER OF DELIVERY
job which requires a worker to work at heights, ask yourself if it is worth
taking on the extra risk.
Deciding to ignore a worker
working at a height is not the answer either as this can still land you in hot water and lead to a prosecution. Mo- bile phone footage from a fellow worker, visitor, or even a passer-by is all it takes for the authorities to act. The law has many ex- amples of it taking a zero
tolerance towards this risk. As well as having the right mechanical aids in place you need to be able to provide evidence that a team member working at a height has been trained in how to operate the me-
chanical aid and to work safely from it. There are shops which already have elevated working platforms available however, there are still too many shops who rely on the following practices to address the risk of a worker working at heights which are dangerous and out-
lawed by the authorities:
• A worker using any part of the vehicle
to elevate themselves to conduct work. • A worker using an upside-down milk crate, or any other plastic container which is not specified as a proper
safety step.
• A worker standing on a metal drum,
or a plank between two drums, to reach the work area.
the workplace (13%) behind motor vehi- cles (31%) and hit by an object (17%).
The overwhelming majority of these deaths and injuries were from workers falling from a height less than that of a delivery van which is why the law is very black and white when it comes to protecting workers from falls.
If workers cannot comfortably repair or paint a vehicle whilst standing on the shop floor and need some sort of mechanical aid to elevate them, then the business must en- sure they have done everything that is rea- sonably practicable to stop them from fall- ing. There are a multitude of mechanical aids available which can be bought or hired to help eliminate the risks such as rolling ladders with platforms, dedicated platforms, scaffolding and even elevated work platforms. Whatever you use, ensure there are barriers in place to stop a worker ‘walking off’ an edge.
Any risk in your panel shop is your responsibility. If you are unsure about a