Water & Ports

LONG SLEEVES = LONG DAY IN THE SUN

Details

Published on Wednesday, 21 May, 2008

Civil maintenance field staff may face the burden of wearing new 'long and long' uniforms as a result of management's decision that it is a necessary OH&S safety precaution to prevent the possibility of skin cancer.

Management claim that long sleeved shirts and pants are the solution to overcoming the risk of skin cancer.

Anyone that has spent a day outdoors in the heat of a summer's day knows that wearing long sleeves to do physical work is unbearable and will eventuate into an additional OH&S risk due to heat stress. It is simply too hot. To reduce OH&S risks from working outdoors, members believe that alternative or additional controls need to be explored.

Management however, freely admit that control processes for heat stress have not been developed and of course, none have been put in place.

As a result members moved a resolution in accordance with the OH&S Act that recommends:

'Civil Maintenance ASU members will order, BUT NOT WEAR the new 'long and long' uniforms until such a time that our representatives are satisfied that adequate control for heat-stress have been developed and implemented.

Management should know that workers will not put their own safety needlessly at risk. This is done by ensuring that where a risk is identified it is either eliminated altogether, or an adequate control to the risk is implemented: before work continues.