Focus to be on health and safety, vehicle technology and professional development for truck drivers
May 24, 2013
The Transport Workers Union’s (TWU) research organisation will this year focus on health and safety, vehicle technology and professional development for truck drivers.
The Transport Education Audit Compliance Health Organisation (TEACHO), a not for profit education and research
company established by the TWU,
unveiled its 2013-14 program at the union’s national council meeting in Darwin yesterday.
Chairman Dr Daryll Hull says
TEACHO will finalise its research program in the coming weeks.
“TEACHO will be looking for ways to reinvest industry funds into research projects that provide direct benefits to both employers and workers in the road transport industry,” Hull says.
“It’s all about workers and employers can work together – finding better ways of doing things to achieve positive outcomes for the entire transport industry.”
Hull says over the past two and a half years, TEACHO has concentrated on successfully growing the Bluecard Training Skills Passport system for the industry.
He says as a result of the system, developed to maintain nationally consistent safety training standards, around 13 percent of transport workers now carry the card in their wallet.
“The number of transport workers accredited under the system has increased by around 20 percent – and is now up to approximately 60,000 workers across the country,” Hull says.
Hull adds safety is not about just completing a course but about “putting the principles of occupational safety into practice on every single day”.
“A key principle of the Bluecard system is that people have a responsibility to ensure they learn, understand and practice new procedures and policies whenever they change jobs,” he says.
“The system is helping to build co-operative employer/employee work environments and foster safe workplace cultures.”
