Workplace safety in focus during National Safe Work Month

Territory businesses and workers are encouraged to make workplace safety their focus in October during National Safe Work Month.

With a shortage of workers in the Territory, NT WorkSafe is calling on businesses and industry groups to place the same emphasis on ensuring the health and safety of existing workers, as they are on recruiting new workers.

In the 2021-22 financial year, 4637 lost time in weeks were due to Territory workers being injured at work.

This year NT WorkSafe has partnered with the Airport Development Group (ADG) to deliver free information sessions on topics likely to impact a large number of Territory businesses and workers.

Two separate presenters have been organised to deliver information sessions on the rapidly emerging national issue of psychosocial hazards at work and its impact on mental health. In the Northern Territory, 559 lost time in weeks were due to psychological injuries in the 2021-22 financial year.

NT WorkSafe and ADG will also deliver a joint information session on safety in design issues encountered in the construction industry that not only have created hazards for workers, but additional project costs and delays.

ADG will host the in-person information sessions at their venue in the Darwin Airport Precinct and all sessions will be streamed so that businesses and workers Territory-wide can participate online.

Peggy Cheong, the Northern Territory’s Work Health and Safety Regulator said this year’s national safe work month theme ‘Know Safety, Work Safely’ aligns with the due diligence requirements that directors and managers have under the work health and safety laws.

“Some of the steps in exercising due diligence include getting up-to-date information of work health and safety matters; and understanding the hazards and risks associated with their workplace.”

“Attending one of our organised events or organising your own safety focused event is a way of exercising due diligence,” she said.

Rob Porter, Executive General Manager Operations, ADG said the organisation has been supporting Safe Work Month for more than 10 years and that he was delighted to be partnering with NT WorkSafe to raise safety awareness to the general public.

“As owners and operators of three airports in the NT, safety is at the core of everything we do, every single day” he said.

“Through our partnership with NT WorkSafe, we aim to have people better informed about safety and provide them with skills to identify and mitigate safety risks.”

For information on National Safe Work Month activities in the Northern Territory, visit worksafe.nt.gov.au/nswm2022

Contact:
Communications Unit
Phone:
0401 114 569
Email:
ntworksafe@nt.gov.au