SafeWork NSW's second biennial regional Building and Construction Symposium is being launched in Newcastle on Monday (23 September), the first of six regional roadshow events in September and October.
The symposium aims to bring together industry, worker, union and government representatives to collaborate on key health and safety concerns impacting the NSW building and construction sector.
Key issues to be discussed include psychosocial hazards in the industry, recent changes to silica legislation to best protect workers, and ways to maintain safety with a skills shortage in a housing and infrastructure boom.
SafeWork NSW will lead a panel exploring ways to better protect new, inexperienced and vulnerable workers with fatal and non-fatal accidents posing an ongoing threat to construction workers.
Mates in Construction will lead a session exploring ways to improve mental health and respect at work. Research shows 190 Australians working in construction take their own lives every year, and that they are eight times more likely to die from suicide than an accident at work.
In other sessions, SafeWork NSW will give an update on crystalline silica and the impact on the construction industry of regulatory changes introduced on 1 September this year.
The symposium will be held at the Wallsend Diggers NSW from 3pm to 6pm, with other events to be held in Port Macquarie and Ballina in September, as well as Wollongong, Albury and Dubbo in October.
