Building dangers ‘1980s revisited’
A GOLD Coast construction worker has lifted the lid on a shocking health toll paid by those in the industry and claims conditions have reverted back “to the 1980s”.
Construction worker and former safety officer Peter Spencer, 55, gave the grim overview during his attendance at yesterday’s Broadbeach Workers’ Memorial Day ceremony.
At the international day of remembrance for workers killed, disabled and injured by their work, three crosses were posted on Broadbeach’s Pratten Park hill.
One was for a construction worker, one for a roof tiler, and one for the 73 workers who died from asbestosis in the past year.
Mr Spencer said the crosses were a reminder that things were still far from perfect in the industry.
“I can see the safety on sites has definitely taken a back step, it’s headed back to what it was like in the ’80s,” he said. “People don’t realise how much dust you breathe every day, or the noise.
“We’re all half-deaf, we’ve all got cataracts, we’ve all got skin cancers; that’s a little-known fact that most people don’t understand.”
His comments come after three separate crane accidents on the Gold Coast last month, including one where an elderly woman narrowly avoided being crushed by a 500kg hook.
“It’s the general safety on sites that’s gone down; the union usually come on site and they’re sort of like Workplace Health and Safety in a lot of ways,” Mr Spencer said. “All those crane incidents are nonunion companies and you can see the difference in safety in such a short period of time.
“Especially on the Gold Coast there seems to be a lot of non-union jobs going on.”
Fellow worker Adrian Bichescu, 32, said he had heard “horror stories” from older tradies in his 10-years of working.
“At the start it was really good; you couldn’t do anything without it being safe and having to maintain measures,” he said.
“It went a bit sloppy for a moment and it’s picking back up now, but it’s 50/50.”
Labor MP Murray Watt said any unsafe practices across the Gold Coast were “unacceptable”.
“Issues of workplace health and safety and how workers are treated are front and centre of this election campaign,” he said. “I want to get to a situation where we don’t have a single cross up there on the hill. Even on the Gold Coast in the last few months we’ve had incidents where people have very nearly lost their lives.
“We’ve got to stamp it out. The more we can change the laws to protect people in their workplace the better.”