Warren Smith, MUA

”We are on the brink of making history on the Australian waterfront. The tragedies that have hit so many families of MUA members over the past decade must never repeat itself,” said MUA assistant national secretary Warren Smith. ”The horror of wharfies being 14 times more likely to die on the job than the average Australian worker must be turned around.”

The Maritime Union of Australia has hailed the clearing of major obstacles towards the adoption of a first-ever stevedoring code of practice.

The code will assist in creating safer workplaces and be a strong tool to prevent the deaths of wharf workers, such as Newcastle stevedore Greg Fitzgibbon, who died last year and whose death is the subject of a just-released investigation.

The code, entitled “Code of Practice: Managing Risks in Stevedoring”, will now go out for public comment for a period of six weeks.

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