The Maritime Union of Australia has hailed the clearing of major obstacles towards the adoption of a first-ever stevedoring code of practice.
The code will assist in creating safer workplaces and be a strong tool to prevent the deaths of wharf workers, such as Newcastle stevedore Greg Fitzgibbon, who died last year and whose death is the subject of a just-released investigation.
The code, entitled “Code of Practice: Managing Risks in Stevedoring”, will now go out for public comment for a period of six weeks.
Safe Work Australia agreed that there are no significant costs associated with the new code, and, thus, the code is now ready for a public comment period.
There will be no regulatory impact statement to assess the cost of the code. An RIS would have presented a bureaucratic hurdle and delayed the code for months.
The comment period kicks off just as the Australian Transport Safety Bureau issued findings in the September 2012 accident on the Weaver Arrow, an incident that took the life of Fitzgibbon, a father of two.
“We are on the brink of making history on the Australian waterfront. The tragedies that have hit so many families of MUA members over the past decade must never repeat itself,” said MUA assistant national secretary Warren Smith.
“A safer workplace is in sight and the code provides us with a single point of reference that we will organise around to make the waterfront a safer place to work.
“The horror of wharfies being 14 times more likely to die on the job than the average Australian worker must be turned around.”
The final draft retains strong protections for the role of hatchman, beefed up training provisions and, importantly, extends onshore codes such as the crane code of practice to apply on ships. It should settle, once and for all, the jurisdictional debate about whether onshore safety laws apply to ships.
Mr Smith said the next six weeks are crucial.
“Now that the code is out for public comment, we have to make sure that we raise our voices even louder because we know our opponents, who value profit over safety, are not going away,” he said.
Mr Smith also commented on the ATSB findings in the death of Fitzgibbon. The report found that the company’s procedures “did not adequately address the risk of the cargo toppling over and the implementation of basic precautions”.
“It’s clear the company bears responsibility for failing to have in place proper procedures that could have prevented Greg’s death,” he said.
“But, the larger problem is the lack of a robust safety system throughout the industry. That’s what we need to address.
“It’s long since been time that we declare that the pursuit of profit will not come at the cost of deaths and injuries on the waterfront.”
