Winter Issue 2009 - cfmeu

S A F E T Y N E W S
with Mick Buchan
John Holland admits poor safety record
INTERNAL HOLLAND MEMO CONFIRMS WHAT THE CFMEU HAS BEEN SAYING ALL ALONG
34 year old Mark McCallum
was killed at Dalrymple Bay
Coal Terminal in May 2007. A
45 rigger was killed in
Newman on March 19. His
name was Wayne Moore.
Both were employed by John
Holland.
In an absolutely astonishing
admission, an internal John Holland
memo from their Structural
Mechanical Process GM, Brendan
Petersen, admits that the current
state of their safety performance is
‘unsatisfactory’ and ‘unacceptable’.
It goes on to say:
“We have a safety objective of No
Harm, however in the last twelve
months there have been 81 serious
injuries to our employees and
subcontractors and we have had
51 occasions where incidents have
occurred with high potential for
injury.”
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE…
“We also have sites that
consistently allow work activities to
be undertaken in an uncontrolled
or unsafe manner, sites that don’t
take employee concerns about
unsafe workplace conditions
seriously and sites that don’t
report near misses so as to learn
from them and ensure the
situations never re-occur again”
HOLLAND
KEEPS CFMEU OUT OF ROLE
TO IMPROVE SAFETY
As a result of having such a poor
safety record, Holland’s have
embarked on a process to try and
improve their on-site safety
procedures. However there will be
no role for unions such as ours to
play. John Holland and their
associated companies such as
Leighton’s have a history of making
it hard for unions to have access to
their sites to review and audit safety
procedures. They won’t talk or tap
into our vast knowledge base and
experience about workplace safety
– this ignorant attitude is costing
lives.
The sooner companies like
Holland’s understand that union
sites are safer sites the better off
their workers will be.
We also have to question their
observation that accidents
and near misses go
unreported. We have reason to
believe that many workers on
anti-union sites are afraid to
speak up about un-safe work
procedures and poor safety
standards for fear of getting
sacked or even blacklisted.
COMCARE NOT UP TO
POLICING SAFETY
John Holland was the first and
only construction contractor to opt
out of State Workers Compensation
when the Howard Government
expanded access to the Comcare
Scheme. The CFMEU objected
strongly to this because our view is
that Comcare doesn’t have enough
resources to police the dangerous
construction industry and our
concern about benefits.
LIVES WORTH FIGHTING
FOR…
It’s no secret that we have had our
run-ins with John Holland and their
associated companies over the
years – but we make no apology for
placing the lives and well being of
workers ahead of any action their
bosses might choose to take.
Report unsafe worksites – your
life depends on it: Call the union
office on 92211055 or call your
Organiser.
Construction Worker – Winter 2009 Page 17
CFMEU