June 21 marks the third anniversary of the horrific swing stage scaffold collapse at the Meriton Pegasus Apartments job on the Gold Coast, in which CFMEU members Chris Gear and Steve Sayer plunged tragically to their deaths.

Prosecutions against the companies involved are being taken by Workplace Health & Safety Qld. The partners of both men have now also filed a claim for damages against the companies for failing to provide a safe workplace.

The incident rocked the Australian construction industry. A tripartite union, government and industry working group was set up in Brisbane to deal with the issues arising from it. A report Recommendations on Improving the Safe Use of Suspended (Swing Stage) Scaffolds was prepared for Workplace Health & Safety Qld (WHSQ)  by Dr Andrew Baigent  and published in August 2008.

In consultation with unions and industry, WHSQ responded to the recommendations with a commitment to enhance the current Scaffolding Code of Practice 2009 and support the development and implementation of increased competencies for those installing and using swing-stage scaffolds.

Since both will take time to introduce, immediate requirements were put in place regarding the personnel inspecting and verifying the set up and subsequent installations of swing-stage scaffolds, load testing and principal contractor responsibilities.They include the following documents:

• WHSQ SS 01 – Principal contractor or building owner swing-stage statement (PDF, 41 kB)
• WHSQ SS 02 – Competent person benchmarks for swing-stage set-up verification (PDF, 46 kB)
• WHSQ SS 03 – Swing-stage suspension system verification statement (PDF, 47 kB)
• WHSQ SS 04 – Swing-stage load test procedure (PDF, 40 kB)

For more details go to the WHSQ website publications section.