Union puts Cement Australia on notice

Union puts Cement Australia on notice
24 May 2011


Cement Australia has been put on notice by the Australian Workers Union (AWU) to clean up its act after another safety incident where two workers were almost injured.

The incident occurred in late March at Cement Australia’s Fisherman’s Landing wharf where the spout of a ship loader came apart and fell to the ground narrowly missing workers.

AWU Gladstone organiser Zac Beers said Cement Australia put production before safety.

“It’s clear through this incident, that has occurred repeatedly and subsequently hasn’t been passed on to appropriate authorities... that production does come before safety at Cement Australia,” Mr Beers said.
“The perspective that production comes before safety has become more and more prevalent across Gladstone.

“As a result we are seeing more incidents resulting in more injuries. In the future if we don’t make these multi-national companies clean-up their backyards we could be looking at a fatality on an industrial site in our community.”

A Cement Australia spokesman said safety was always first priority over production.
“The company has confirmed that there were no injuries and the incident was immediately investigated,” the spokesman said.

However a Workplace Health and Safety spokeswoman said the incident was never reported and investigations were now under way due to The Observer’s inquiries.
Published under Cement News