October at Pryme is National Safe Work Month. During October each year, Safe Work Australia asks businesses, employers and workers across Australia to join their cause and commit to building safe and healthy workplaces for all Australians.
Safe Work Australia is an Australian government statutory agency whose vision and purpose is to develop national policy to improve workplace health and safety and workers’ compensation arrangements throughout Australia. National Safe Work Month runs throughout October, and provides a range of resources to assist businesses to implement better safety measures on their worksites.
Over four weeks, Safe Work Australia is focusing on a different health and safety topic: injuries at work, mental health, managing WHS risks and preventing harm, and safe and healthy work for all.
Injuries at work
Individuals, their families and the broader community are all impacted by work-related injury and illness. Safe Work Australia data shows that more than 120,000 workers are compensated for a serious work-related injury or illness in Australia each year, and just under 200 are fatally injured at work.
This is why Pryme is so passionate about preventing injuries in the workplace. In order to reduce these numbers, we offer a comprehensive range of safety solutions for managing a wide range of workplace risks and hazards, including dropped tools, UV exposure and heat stress, cold exposure, and ergonomic injury.
Mental Health
According to Safe Work Australia, mental and psychological health, just like physical health, is an important part of work health and safety. Preventing psychological harm is an essential part of creating a healthy and safe workplace, because work-related psychological injuries have a significant impact on workers, their families, and business, and they may result in longer time away from work and cost more than other injuries.
At Pryme, we’re passionate about mental health. That’s why we support organisations like Mates In Construction, who are working to create more supportive work environments, and to reduce the risks of poor mental health and suicide in Australian workers.
Managing WHS risks and preventing harm
Safe Work Australia advises that all workplaces should aim to eliminate or minimise risks so far as is reasonably practicable: this involves first identifying hazards, assessing the risk for the likelihood of it occurring and the consequences that could result from it; and then implementing control measures that can help all workers to stay safe and healthy at work (like isolating workers from hazards like toxic fumes). They provide a range of guides including how to manage WHS risks, consulting with workers, and engaging health and safety representatives.
Pryme’s comprehensive range of safety products can form part of the control measures you implement to mitigate WHS risks. Whether your workers are at risk of heat stress and sun exposure, dehydration, repeated and sustained injuries, or injuries from working at heights, we have industry-leading solutions available to help you create a safer, more compliant workplace.
Safe and healthy work for all
According to Safe Work Australia, our country is a world leader in WHS, but our workers continue to be injured in the workplace, sometimes fatally. To make an impact in this area, we need to ensure that WHS is core to how we do business in Australia: that’s why in the final week of National Safe Work Month is focused on the future of work. This involves changing patterns and ways of working, including the rise of automation, changes to work organisation, and the emergence of new forms of work that will create both opportunities and complexities for Australia’s WHS system.
Because of these changes and development, Pryme is committed to staying abreast of new innovations and new products that can help to mitigate new risks as they emerge in our workplaces. You can be the first to discover our new products as we release them, by signing up to our mailing list, following us on socials, and regularly checking our website for updates.
You can also visit Safe Work Australia at https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au for a range of resources and publications across workplace safety, WHS law and regulation, WHS data and research, and information on workers’ compensation to ensure that you’re always across changes in the industry.
