WorkSafe’s Health and Safety Month comes to Shepparton

By Gabriel Garcia

Sep 27, 2022

In the spotlight: WorkSafe Health and Safety Month seeks to raise awareness of risk at workplaces and suitable mitigation strategies. Photo by Rodney Braithwaite

WorkSafe will be making two visits to Shepparton, the first since 2019, to help raise awareness of mental injury in the workplace.

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A ‘Staying safe on the tools’ breakfast for tradies will be held on October 10 at WB Hunter Mitre 10, where attendees can hear about the latest safety practices in the construction industry.

This will be followed on October 14 by another breakfast, at the GV Hotel, hosted by Goulburn Valley Safety Group in conjunction with WorkSafe.

Leadership Victoria chair Christine Nixon will be a guest speaker at the GV Hotel event.

Former AFL Geelong Cats captain and triple-premiership player Cameron Ling will also be at that event.

After the breakfast he will host three sessions, which will cover:

• Mental injury in the workplace and how to implement a prevention-led approach.

• How to build a systems-based approach to health and safety.

• The value of health and safety representatives in the workplace.

Each session will be followed by an informal audience participation Q & A chat.

Mr Ling will also host some of the free Health and Safety Month webinar sessions between October 24 and 28.

The theme of the webinar sessions will be ‘Connect, Learn, Share’.

“Spreading the message of how important workplace health and safety is, and how employers and workers can each play their role in improving workplace health and safety, is something I’m particularly passionate about,” Mr Ling said.

Health and Safety Month ambassadors Darren Smith, Sally Collier-Clarke and Sara Jorgenson will also share their stories and promote the important role of health and safety representatives during the online sessions.

Workplace health and safety has been in the spotlight recently, with statistics from the 2021-22 financial year revealing there were five work-related fatalities in the Goulburn area. This included the local government areas of Greater Shepparton, Mitchell, Moira, Murrindindi and Strathbogie.

A further 699 injury claims were accepted by WorkSafe, a slight fall from the 710 claims in the 2020-21 financial year.

Further broken down, these statistics showed that the health care and social assistance sector had 131 claims, manufacturing 102, and agriculture, forestry and fishing 84.

The most common injuries include musculoskeletal system damage, followed by traumatic tendon, muscle and ligament injury. Mental injury rounded out the top three list.

To register and for more information, visit www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/health-and-safety-month