- Minister for Workplace Safety
The ranks of Victoria’s workplace safety watchdog have been boosted, with 25 new WorkSafe inspectors hitting the streets.
Minister for Workplace Safety Jill Hennessy welcomed the new inspectors at their graduation ceremony in Geelong today.
WorkSafe inspectors can visit any workplace, anytime and can issue a range of improvement and prohibition notices to ensure that employers comply with their health and safety obligations.
WorkSafe will not hesitate to investigate and prosecute employers if they fail to adequately address health and safety risks in the workplace.
The graduates recently finished a rigorous 15-week training program and are already on the ground inspecting workplaces across the state to keep workers safe.
They were chosen from a pool of about 1000 applicants because of their strong background in occupational health and safety, and their impressive commitment to the wellbeing and safety of workers.
The new inspectors come from sectors like defence, construction, transport, local government and retail, and have qualifications in areas like engineering, psychology and chemistry.
There are 15 men and 10 women in the graduating class, and they will be assigned to WorkSafe offices in Melbourne’s CBD, Essendon, Mulgrave, Wangaratta, Traralgon and Geelong.
The new inspectors will also soon start their Diploma of Government (Workplace Inspection), which is undertaken by all WorkSafe inspectors to further their technical, behavioural and operational training.
As noted by Minister for Workplace Safety Jill Hennessy
“WorkSafe inspectors play a vital role in the fight to protect Victorian workers – they’ll take action against any employer that fails to keep workers safe.”
“The role of an inspector requires enormous passion and commitment, so I congratulate these graduates for taking up this essential cause.”
