Report: risk rife in transport

The results of a survey just published by independent Government agency Safe Work Australia has found that employers in the transport industry are "more accepting of risk taking, rule breaking and minor incidents" than employers in other industries.

The top three causes for work-related injuries nominated by employers were "risk taking, unsafe work practices and procedures and manual tasks", the report states.

The findings were compiled using data gleaned from six previous surveys and a case study conducted between 2008 and 2014, in which respondents numbered between 762 and 4500 people.

The 31-page report, titled Transport Industry: Synthesis of Research Findings July 2015, was written to inform Workplace Health & Safety (WHS) policy development in the transport industry, as a part of the Government's Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022.

The strategy has already identified the transport sector as a 'priority industry' due to its historic high rates of fatalities and injuries, with its injury rate some 25 per cent higher than the rate for all Australian workers.

The report found that 20 per cent of employers broke safety rules to complete work on time (compared to six per cent in other industries), while 20 per cent of employers agreed that they considered minor incidents a normal part of daily work (compared to 10 per cent in other industries).

Also worrying was the fact that 20 per cent of employers "accept dangerous behaviour as long as there are no accidents", compared to less than two per cent in other industries.

Some 21 per cent of employers admitted that workers bent the rules to achieve a target, while 31 per cent believed workers ignored safety rules to get the job done. Thirty-two per cent of employers said workplace conditions prevented workers from following the rules. By way of comparison, only five to six per cent of employers in other industries agreed with those statements.

Among its various conclusions, the report found that "the transport industry performs poorly in a range of areas than other industries", and that "workplace conditions and to some degree pressure from management stops workers from following safety practices".

The authors have urged for an examination of the design of work in the transport industry to gain a greater understanding of why unsafe work practices persist. The report also calls for an investigation into whether problems are more pronounced in specific industry sub-sectors (ie light-duty trucks versus heavy-duty trucks), and for greater collaboration between industry and WHS regulators.

Click here to read the report for yourself.