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FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
REFOCUSSING
SUSTAINABILITY
With a new government in place and a more settled commercial environment
nationally, the Facility Management Association of Australia (FMA) now
has the opportunity to widen the focus of sustainability and include social
impacts, such as health, safety and wellbeing. FMA Chief Executive Officer,
Nicholas Burt, has signalled the need for the industry to work proactively with
government to strengthen the focus on this important aspect.
Most years the facilities management industry faces
challenges and uncertainties, but this year it included
the unprecedented early election announcement. At the
time, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said, “Announcing the
election date now enables individuals and business,
investors and consumers to plan their year,” but
without certainty of outcome, the extended timeframe
effectively put the brake on many projects.
or 1.93 per 100,000 workers, died due to an injury
incurred at work.
Increasingly the focus of sustainability has been on
environmental impacts such as energy efficiency,
carbon management etc., while the social aspects,
those that protect and improve the health, safety and
well-being of workers, visitors and residents have not
shared the spotlight.
Earlier this year the FMA in conjunction with
Programmed FM undertook an industry wide Census.
Stakeholders in the facility management supply chain
including service procurers, facility management
practitioners, through to FM goods and services
suppliers were asked to identify areas of priority.
With the election behind us and a new government in
place, there is a cautious optimism and revitalised activity.
For the FMA this has included raising awareness at an
industry and governmental level of the need to create a
more holistic approach to operational FM and provide a
balance in addressing environmental and social issues.
One significant outcome was that health and safety
enhancement was not seen as a top three priority for
2012 but respondents did see it as a top three priority
moving forward over the next three years.
This need was highlighted by the recent Safe Work
Australia’s 2013 ‘Key Work Health and Safety Statistics’
which has shown that when it comes to health and
safety little has changed from year to year, and could in
fact be worsening.
In 2009–10, there were 131,170 workers’
compensation claims for serious work-related injuries
or illnesses, equating to an incidence rate of 13.0
serious claims per 1000 employees. Preliminary data for
2010–11 show there were 127,330 serious workers’
compensation claims. Although this equates to 12.2
serious claims per 1000 employees, the actual final
number of accepted claims for that year is likely to be
around 2% higher.
One shocking statistic that is often downplayed is
workplace related deaths. In 2010-11, 220 workers,
Govlink I Issue 1 2014
An important aspect of the FM professional’s role is
compliance and risk management. As such, a wide array
of regulations and standards apply to the management,
maintenance and operation of buildings to ensure,
among other things, the health and safety of occupants.
It is pleasing that the Census indicated a growing
awareness around the importance of risk and safety
issues, but this now needs to be prioritised. Aside from
the human cost due to work place injury there are also
economic costs, as also demonstrated by the Safe Work
Australia 2013 ‘Key Work Health and Safety Statics’:
• A typical serious workers’ compensation claim
involves four weeks absence from work;
• One-quarter of serious claims required 12 or more
weeks off work; and,
• Work related injury and illness were estimated
to cost $60.6 billion in the 2008–09 financial
year, representing 4.8% of GDP. The cost estimate
includes direct costs (payment of wages and medical
costs) and indirect costs (lost productivity, loss of
future earnings and social welfare payments).