Work Health and Safety
Ensuring safe and healthy workplaces for all
Union members are driving the fight for stronger workplace safety laws, ensuring every worker has access to safe working conditions and fair health and safety protections. This section highlights how collective action is pushing for better work health and safety (WHS) standards, stronger workers’ rights, and employer accountability in creating safer workplaces.
Protecting workers from unsafe conditions
Every worker deserves to feel safe on the job. Unions are leading efforts to prevent workplace injuries, enforce occupational health and safety (OHS) regulations, and eliminate risks such as exposure to hazardous materials and unsafe work environments. Campaigns focus on improving mental health support at work, strengthening safety training, and ensuring that workers are not put at unnecessary risk.
Join the movement for workplace safety
By becoming a union member, you gain the power to demand better workplace protections, fight for fair compensation for workplace injuries, and hold employers accountable for maintaining safe working environments. Together, union members are making real progress in creating workplaces where safety is a right, not a privilege.
Read our articles for more information about Health and Safety at Work!
The workers who didn’t make it home
April 28, 2023
Remember the dead, fight like hell for the living.
We put an end to asbestos, now it’s time to ban silica
April 21, 2023
You wouldn’t accept being exposed to asbestos, right? Then why should we expect any different for silica?
Silica dust leads to “death sentences” for workers
February 23, 2023
“Engineered stone is killing workers. This is the asbestos of the 2020s.”
COVID isn’t over: what you can do to protect yourself and others
February 2, 2023
If your employer is refusing to implement any of these measures, it’s time to give your union a call.
How to deal with heatwaves at work
January 19, 2023
The impacts of extreme temperatures are deadly. That is why it’s important to know how to keep yourself safe during a heatwave, your rights at work and what additional support is available.
Work rights and support during floods and heavy rains
If you have been impacted by the recent floods in South Australia or Western Australia, or the heavy rain in Queensland, this information will help you plan your next steps.
Turning up to work unwell? You need a Health and Safety Representative
December 21, 2022
The results are in from Work Shouldn’t Hurt 2022: a national survey on workers’ experiences of health and safety.
Strength and safety for childcare workforce
November 19, 2022
If nothing changes, we will continue to see educators leave the sector in droves. Not for lack of love, but because it breaks our hearts to be forced to put profit above children.
We mustache the question: how can we protect mental health at work
November 11, 2022
Movember shines a light on how men’s mental health has been a taboo topic, shrouded by notions of toxic masculinity. In doing so, it also shows us how important it is for us to be able to have a frank approach to mental health in the workplace without fear of stigmatisation.