13 November 2016

From tomorrow WorkSafe and the Canterbury Rebuild Safety Charter will be visiting construction sites across Canterbury to raise awareness about the dangers of fatigue, drinking alcohol and taking drugs.

From tomorrow WorkSafe and the Canterbury Rebuild Safety Charter will be visiting construction sites across Canterbury to raise awareness about the dangers of fatigue, drinking alcohol and taking drugs.

Keeping physically and mentally alert is crucial in a high-risk industry such as construction – particularly as teams come under pressure to meet pre-Christmas deadlines.

“As part of the two-week campaign we’ll be dropping by sites, delivering toolbox talks and handing out water bottles with specific impairment messages,” says WorkSafe’s Canterbury Rebuild Project Manager Donna Burt.

For the first time this year the campaign is being extended beyond fatigue to raise awareness about avoiding alcohol and other drugs.

“We know that this is a major issue in the rebuild, and we’ve worked hard this year to raise awareness the issue,” says Ms Burt.

“We ran an event in June to help construction organisations understand the impact of alcohol and other drugs, and how they can develop policies in this area. The Canterbury Rebuild Safety Charter also released a toolbox talk and a factsheet on avoiding alcohol and other drugs,” she says.

“We’ll be dropping off these resources to sites as part of the campaign – and using the water bottles to reinforce the simple messages around fatigue and alcohol and other drugs,” says Ms Burt.