CWU wants health monitoring at new / expanded parcel facilities
CWU National Office has requested consultation on health monitoring for workers at MPF and SPF.
We are concerned that there is a real risk of chronic injuries on new work tasks, particularly in black spots such as the bullring , manual induction, singulation take-off and loose loading and unloading.
We believe that there are issues that have not been properly considered, such as the age of workers with many over 45 years of age and a number have had shoulder and back injuries.
But Post Future Parcels Network managers have hand-balled the request for monitoring workers’ heal th to the National Enterprise Safety manager. They have done their bit, saying safety has been considered in the design of the new equipment and the new work stations are assessed as safe. Their focus is on start up day and achieving productivity targets set for new equipment.
Why is it that productivity monitoring is far more intensive than monitoring workers health? Every second of a postal worker’s day (whether it is in Parcels, Mails, Delivery or Retail) is monitored. But when it comes to safety once they have ticked the box that’s the end of it. Workers can fill in incident or hazard reports they say. But what then happens is a bit of a mystery.
