SafeWork targets height and plant risks at Wilton and Menangle sites
10 Mar 2025•BlueSafe Team•Source: SafeWork NSW
SafeWork NSW inspectors will visit residential construction sites in Wilton and Menangle this week, focusing on falls from heights, mobile plant and psychological health and safety.
The inspections will take place across the developing Wollondilly area to check and enforce workplace safety requirements. Construction is one of NSW’s highest-risk industries, and inspectors will focus on key harms identified in SafeWork NSW’s 2024–2025 Annual Regulatory Statement.
Falls from heights remain the leading cause of fatalities. Inspectors will take a zero-tolerance approach, with SafeWork continuing to see workers exposed to risks through inadequate job planning, poor site supervision and failure to use established controls such as edge protection.
Inspectors will also check whether workers are separated from mobile plant, including excavators and trucks, wherever possible.
Psychological health and safety will be another focus. Inspectors will speak with workers, businesses, Health and Safety Representatives and union representatives, offering advice and resources to help manage psychosocial hazards.
Those hazards can include harassment, bullying, work pressure, exposure to traumatic events, violence and hazardous physical working environments. The average cost and time away from work associated with psychological injury are more than three times those of physical injury claims.
SafeWork NSW Acting Executive Director Operations & Enforcement Tony Williams said business owners must ensure workers receive proper training and instruction, particularly for high-risk work involving heights and moving plant and machinery. He said inspectors would issue on-the-spot fines where necessary when workers’ lives were put at risk.
Mr Williams also said SafeWork NSW was committed to preventing psychological harm and promoting workplace mental health, including providing businesses and workers with tools, resources and support to address psychosocial hazards.
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