Student death highlights campus safety problems

Wednesday, May 24, 2000 - 10:00

BY MELANIE SJOBERG

SYDNEY — The death of a 26-year-old student at the University of NSW has sparked anger on the campus about unsafe work practices. A lunchtime protest on the issues was held on May 18.

UNSW has been undergoing construction work to beautify the campus and encourage more (fee-paying) overseas students, but little effort has been made to make the construction areas safe for pedestrians. Many students and staff are forced to wander through building work in progress, exactly the circumstances in which the student was killed.

University lecturer and union activist Diane Fields told those gathered at the protest action on May 18 that a staff member had been taken away by ambulance that morning following yet another incident. She said that the record of spending on safety was poor and that the university safety unit had been renamed "risk management". "This means that they are prepared to risk our safety", she said angrily.

The protest was supported by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), whose state secretary Andrew Ferguson pointed out, "2500 workers were killed in the workplace last year".

Ferguson blamed the accidents on the university administration's "incompetence", particularly its willingness to use cheap, non-union labour.

He said that the CFMEU had discovered asbestos during their audit of buildings and that students and staff were exposed to it when walking through nearby areas, which do not have perimeter fencing. He called for united pressure to improve safety standards on campus.

National Union of Students NSW president Dom Rowe encouraged everyone to sign a petition that will be presented to the university's vice-chancellor, John Niland.

The student campaign, coordinated by the UNSW Student Guild's Education Action Group, is petitioning for all building contractors and the UNSW administration to abide by all safety laws, perimeter fencing to be erected around construction sites on campus and safety and construction updates to be posted regularly in visible areas. It has also called for the employment of only union labour on site.