Heavy Equipment Safety And Workplace Safety Laws

Over the years there have been many accidents, some resulting in deaths, simply due to lack of heavy equipment safety procedures. There are many workplaces that started to introduce workplace safety procedures in an attempt to reduce the number of accidents, injuries, deaths and property damages. Let’s face it, it is not in the interests of a business to have a machine out of action, or to pay compensation for damages, as a result of an accident.

Unfortunately there were a lot employers who simply kept it ‘business as normal’. They looked at the cost of implementing safety procedures, which was a ‘now’ cost and compared them to the possible ‘future’ cost of an accident. They decided it wasn’t worth the money. When it comes to heavy equipment safety, if something goes wrong, it is generally a big incident.

Over the last ten years consecutive governments at both state and federal level have sort to introduce workplace safety legislation that puts in place a minimum set of standards in the workplace. Part of this legislative approach was to include safety training in all courses related to construction and the use of heavy equipment. There are now teams of inspectors that travel the country making unexpected visits to industry and assessing their workplace safety procedures. If a business fails these inspections they can face heavy fines.

Before undertaking any heavy equipment training, check first to see whether or not their training is accredited. Heavy equipment safety is a compulsory component for any heavy equipment training program to become accredited. Check first and ensure your training meets any legislative requirements – if it doesn’t, you will have a certificate that is worthless since no employer will take you on – make your training count – make sure it is accredited.