When will we learn?

As a practitioner involved in forklift safety, I am tempted to throw my arms up in the air at the senseless amount of mayhem and loss of life we continually experience with this equipment. In the past four weeks we have heard of another two deaths and that another family waits for the recovery of a man in a hospital intensive care unit resulting from an incident involving a forklift and sheets of glass.

So shall we go down the well worn path of the “blame game” where one party accuses the other of negligence or bad practice and the resultant outcome is no progress at all? In fact attitudes become more entrenched and polarised.

From my extensive visits to a range of industries throughout the country I’m now forming an opinion on why we continue to struggle with this problem. I realise my views may not be widely shared but I believe I have a duty to widen the debate on this critical safety issue.

Human nature

I see overwhelming evidence of bad decision made by some operators, even though extensive training has been undertaken by the companies.

Parallels could be drawn with the problem we experience on our roads caused by drivers speeding, after exhaustive campaigns to educate the public to slow down.

A partial solution maybe to implement a tougher licensing system; making it more difficult to obtain a permit. It may also help to introduce a system of license suspension where numerous breaches of regulations have been found, as well as a program of screening potential operators in the employment process, looking for temperaments suitable for operating a forklift.

Changes in employment structures

The widespread use of casual and labour hire personnel in plants could mean that operators aren’t aware of the driving abilities of other forklift personnel.

Changes to a crew may mean mixing the abilities of operators, which can be very hazardous in high-volume warehouses and plants where a high degree of skill is required to operate the forklifts.

It is a fact that most Australian companies have reduced their respective workforces in the past ten years to enable them to compete both domestically and abroad.

This has tended to reduce the number of operators in a fleet and there is a widespread perception among workers that they are being asked to work quicker to achieve quotas and targets during their shift.

Whilst we understand that companies may not verbally echo these sentiments to its employees, we are of the opinion that some of this thinking is unfortunately alive and well in the workplace. This of course has a bearing on the mental state of operators who use this as a justification for poor practices.

Company culture

The way an organisation approaches this issue will have a bearing on the safety culture involving forklifts and other equipment.

Companies can trumpet the issue of safety from a myriad of colourful workplace posters but still fail to live the culture and pay only lip service to safety. In fact this behaviour damages the relationship with employees, who see it as a breach of trust.

Fortunately today there are many good examples where companies have heeded the call and have implemented a strong forklift safety culture. We need to see more of this approach.

For too long we have convinced ourselves that our forklift safety culture in Australia is beyond approach. It is time we had a reality check and examine the real reasons why our record of accidents and fatalities is very poor. We need to look deeper into why we consistently get it wrong.

This wake up call should also apply to the jurisdiction structure where several different models exist to control safety in this country, a ridiculous situation for a country of only twenty million.

I write this article not to sit on the sidelines and criticise from the bleachers but to try and engage all stakeholders in a meaningful debate.

* Ken Wood is director of Safety Awareness Forklift Equipment 08 8232 1630.