TWO apprentices in the construction industry are seriously injured every month while waiting for the overdue WorkSafe ACT apprentice safety audit to begin, says UnionsACT. 

UnionsACT secretary Alex White says UnionsACT has strong concerns at the undue delays in WorkSafe’s apprentice safety audit, which was supposed to have been completed in October last year.

In the meantime, Mr White says workers aged under 25 years old are injured at twice the rate of older workers and two apprentices in the construction industry are seriously injured every month.

“No satisfactory answer has been provided by the Work Safety Commissioner for why the audit has been delayed,” he says. 

“We are very concerned that the flawed ‘education’ requirement imposed by Access Canberra onto WorkSafe may be the cause of the delay.

“It appears that rather than enforcing the safety laws, Access Canberra may be hindering WorkSafe from conducting an audit that would protect apprentices from injury.

“UnionsACT calls on WorkSafe to commence the audit urgently.”