Adelaidean deck collapse must prompt safety review
A deck collapse during a concrete pour at the notorious Adelaidean site must prompt an urgent safety review to prevent serious injuries to workers, warns the CFMEU.
"Today is just the latest in a string of incidents at this site and proves that our concerns about safety on The Adelaidean project are well founded," said Andrew Sutherland, CFMEU National Construction Assistant Secretary.
"While workers avoided injury today, unless urgent action is taken to address programming issues at the site it will only be a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or worse. It is not good enough when workers are relying on little more than good luck to avoid injury. Putting profits before safety is a proven recipe for disaster."
"The union has continually raised issues with the lax attitude to worker safety shown by the builder, Kyren Group."
"This is the same site where union safety inspectors were abused by a site manager and had their right of entry notices torn up and where the union has been forced to take legal action to uphold lawful entry rights."
"Union officials saw workers on The Adelaidean site installing window facades without harnesses and leaning over the edge of the building while trying to manoeuvre glass panes. It is clear that safety is taking second place to profits at the site."
"What was also disappointing and concerning about today's incident, is that it took 3 hours for SafeWork SA to attend the site. When the regulator finally attended the site, they attempted to stop union safety inspectors from inspecting the section of deck that had collapsed during the early morning concrete pour."
"It is the second formwork deck collapse on a SA construction site in as many weeks. SafeWork SA needs to take the safety issues raised by the union seriously and start investigating the reasons why these potentially fatal incidents are happening more and more often on South Australian construction sites."
