Wednesday 7th April 2021

Wednesday 7th April 2021 brought two significant safety and industry updates worth reviewing today, covering building sector shortages and workplace fatigue guidance.

Building Sector Faces Significant Trade and Product Shortage

The ABC has reported that near-record new home approvals are putting intense pressure on supply chains and sparking construction delays within Australia's building sector.

With the largest growth in 20 years, 13,527 new homes have been approved, marking a 91.8 per cent jump over the previous month.

Industry experts have put this rapid increase down to a combination of the federal government's HomeBuilder Grants, spikes in interstate migration, and low-interest rates.

While builders remain busier than ever before, keeping pace with demand proves difficult, and new home builders now face waits stretching several months due to ongoing delays.

Master Builders Queensland deputy chief executive officer Paul Bidwell said he was concerned the fallout of the current situation may lead to some builders going broke.

He stated: "we just need to get through these next few months hopefully without too much pain for builders and their clients."

Full coverage of this past event can be found on the ABC website.

Guidance for Employers in Preventing Work-Related Fatigue Injuries

Fatigue is an acute and ongoing state leading to physical, mental or emotional exhaustion, preventing workers from performing safely.

Intense mental or physical effort, combined with long hours, causes fatigue that carries lasting health effects well beyond a single shift or workday.

WorkSafe Victoria identifies three categories of fatigue: physical, mental and emotional.

Physical Fatigue

Physical fatigue presents as exhaustion, reducing capacity to engage in manual labour and other demanding tasks.

Mental Fatigue

Mental fatigue leads to cognitive exhaustion, lowering capacity for decision-making and other thinking-based duties.

Emotional Fatigue

Emotional fatigue shows up as reduced capacity to engage in caregiving roles and other emotionally demanding responsibilities.

Fatigue also results from imbalances between job demands and the exertion required to perform given tasks. Insufficient recovery time between shifts may likewise cause workers to become fatigued over successive rostered periods.

Employers reviewing this guidance today should consider pairing it with broader workplace safety updates from Wednesday 14th April 2021 for a fuller picture of current obligations.

To download the guide on preventing workplace injuries caused by fatigue, click here. For more information on this topic, head to the WorkSafe Vic website.

For further reading on recent safety developments, see our coverage from Wednesday 21st April 2021 and Wednesday 28th April 2021, published later that same month.