20.09.2012

Union protests crane incident

Around 800 construction workers are reported to have staged a protest at the site of a children's hospital in Perth, Western Australia, after a tower crane hoist cable incident this week.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) organised the protest after the dead end of a luffing jib tower crane’s hoist cable broke free, dropping the hook and cable to the ground along with the 25 tonnes of crane counterweight that it was lifting, narrowly missing those working below.
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The load, cable and hook block

The CFMEU claimed that the contractor John Holland had verbally agreed to obtain an independent engineer's report into the incident and the operation of another similar crane on the site and then shortly afterwards reneged on the deal, refusing to provide any information to union safety officer Steve McCann.

The union also says that the company is insisting that requests for information be made through its industrial relations department, therefore treating the issue as industrial relations, rather than one of health and safety.

The union also claimed that one of the cranes has been suffering from issues for more than a month, but that no investigation into the faults had been conducted.

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We have since heard that the company did conduct an investigation into the incident on September 20th but refused to share the infomration with its employees or the union.

A meeting was convened on Sunday September 23rd by Brendan McCarthy, deputy president of Fair Work Australia with representatives of the CFMEU, John Holland, Comcare and Worksafe WA.

McCarthy has instructed an Independent Engineers report be conducted on how the incident occured and that the information be shared. Whic is what the union had initially requested.