A proposal to fast-track a change to certification and allow people below the nationally agreed age limit of 18 to drive a forklift has been canned by the national cabinet during a meeting on Thursday.
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The idea was floated by the Prime Minister on Wednesday as a potential solution to the issue of a shortage of forklift drivers in grocery distribution centres, which have been hit hard by COVID absenteeism.
However, the plan was quickly and widely condemned by unions and workplace safety experts, with the ACT's Minister for Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety, Mick Gentleman, describing it as "a narrow-minded attempt by the Prime Minister to resolve an economic issue by endangering the lives of young workers, children". The national cabinet unanimously voted down the plan.
On Wednesday, when Mr Morrison claimed changes to COVID testing regimes for truck drivers were part of the resolution to supply issues, he added "there are other changes that need to be made and they're at a state level, and I'm continuing to pursue those with the states".
"There are changes that we need to make around the age of forklift drivers, to get quite specific," he said.
One of the biggest bottlenecks in getting grocery supplies from distribution centres out to supermarkets across the country has been identified as the physical loading and unloading of trucks at warehouses, a task which almost universally involves forklifts.
Last week, Woolworths boss Brad Banducci said absenteeism in the company's distribution centres and supermarkets of between 20 to 40 per cent was "a direct and indirect result of [the] Omicron [COVID virus]".
There were 598 recorded workplace incidents involving forklifts in NSW alone last year, with five people killed. Earlier this week in South Dandenong, Victoria, a forklift failed and killed the 44-year-old driver.
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WorkSafe NSW says even with the current training, induction and safety mechanisms in place, "an incident involving a forklift occurs every day, six days week".
Driving a forklift is regarded as a high-risk operation, and a national certificate of competency is required, which demands a performance assessment and an oral/written assessment.
Mr Gentleman said any change to these standards would have a counterproductive effect and increase the workplace health and safety burden on businesses, "[driving] up their risk-management costs and [increasing] their staffing needs to ensure appropriate supervision in the workplace".
The acting ACT branch secretary of the CFMEU, Zachary Smith, described the PM's plan as "outrageous".
"Isolating one skillset and relaxing the safety regulations around it to solve an issue which has many other contributing factors is totally ridiculous," Mr Smith said.
"Forklift driving is a high-risk operation; it's in the same category as crane operators, scaffolding and dogmen. As recently as Tuesday this week, there was a forklift driving fatality in Victoria.
"This proposal is one of the most absurd things I've heard."
As recently as September last year, WorkSafe NSW had a crackdown on unsafe forklift work practices, with over 850 businesses warned that inspectors would be showing up to check on forklift safe operation compliance.
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