Transport workers at high risk of death says Safe Work Australia. Available from <https://safetowork.com.au/transport-workers-at-high-risk-of-death-says-safe-work-australia/> [October 19, 2016] picture courtesy: Martinez & Schill LLP
The Transport Workers’ Union has called on the Government to urgently address workplace deaths among transport workers after a new Safe Work Australia report shows that almost one out of every four workers killed in the last 13 years was a transport worker.
Last year, 42 road and rail drivers died at work. Since 2003, 754 workers died in the transport, postal and warehousing industry. During this period, 583 truck, bus and taxi drivers died.
“The government is simply not responding to the unacceptable risk transport workers are facing. It is every workers’ right to come home safe and yet these workers are expected to risk their lives while doing their jobs,” said Michael Kaine, TWU Acting National Secretary.
“There are pressures on truck drivers that make their jobs dangerous: they are forced to speed, drive long hours, skip mandatory breaks and overload their vehicles all because wealthy retailers and manufacturers are cutting costs and lowering transport contracts.”
This has a real effect and people are dying trying to deliver their goods. It has got to stop,” Kaine added.
In the last 10 days, three truck drivers died, two in a head-on collision in Sydney’s west and one in a roll-over west of Toowoomba.
“The Federal Government’s own report released this year acknowledges the risk to drivers’ lives. It also shows a system of safe rates, where drivers are paid minimum rates for all their work, would cut truck crashes by 28 per cent.”
“Yet the Government is opposed to this solution and as a result, it is families and the wider community which are bearing the brunt,” Kaine added.
In the 10 years to 2014 over 2,500 truck drivers and other road users died in truck crashes.
Transport workers at high risk of death says Safe Work Australia. Available from <https://safetowork.com.au/transport-workers-at-high-risk-of-death-says-safe-work-australia/> [October 19, 2016] picture courtesy: Martinez & Schill LLP
