A core belief of Paynter Dixon is to deliver a safe work environment and the expectation that every worker goes home safely to their family. With this at its core, Paynter Dixon invests heavily in quality and safety and has held Federal Safety Commission (FSC) accreditation for many years across its construction and insurance divisions, and more recently its remedial division.

The FSC scheme requires building and construction companies to adhere to a range of operational and reporting practices to improve site safety with projects audited at regular intervals.

Paynter Dixon’s most recent FSC audit was overseen by Mr David Denney, the Federal Safety Commissioner.

Mr Denney was present at the FSC audit of our Northwest Christian College project in Riverstone – the construction of a 2-storey building consisting of 8 classrooms and a 150-seat lecture theatre.

It was the first time our staff and management had the privilege of hosting the Head of the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner on one of our worksites.

John Doodson, Head of Health, Safety, Environment and Quality at Paynter Dixon walked the project site with Mr Denney.

“Having dealt with FSC accreditation requirements for the past 14 years, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t like to work for a company that doesn’t have it due to the high level of safety compliance it drives, throughout all levels of the business” he said.

John, an electrician by trade, understands first-hand that workplace accidents do happen. A trip to the local hardware store in 2005 turned into a life and death struggle for a store worker caught in a major gas explosion.

‘’I was first on the scene – the guy was horribly burned after not following the proper processes and not having the right supervision.’’

“The hardware accident taught me that many people within the workforce don’t have control over what they are doing,’’ Mr Doodson said.

Paynter Dixon undertakes a wide variety of works and in particular focus is the many high-risk works undertaken on our remedial and insurance projects.

A recently finished project, Oaks Goldsbrough Apartments, was audited as part of our ongoing FSC accreditation. This involved the repair and replacement of approximately 1400m² of roof sheeting over a 60m high void that was damaged in a hailstorm.

Most of the works were completed using an engineered scaffold that had to be designed to suit the load limits of the existing heritage-listed building. This was undertaken while the building was in complete occupation therefore adding greater intricacy to the already complex environment. On projects such as Oaks Goldsbrough Apartments, Paynter Dixon considers fall prevention systems during the design and planning stage to ensure the safety of all workers.

Mr Doodson, who has experience working on large construction and infrastructure projects, believes that mistakes are often made when supervisors become too focused on the paperwork and not relating that written process to the actual task onsite.

“We have checks and processes to ensure things are done and signed off but the key to effective staff training is to make it personal,’’ he said.

Embedding safety culture in a business requires the executive leadership team driving it with a top-down approach. Paynter Dixon Executive Chairman James Boyd believes safety should be central to everything we do.

“Investing in a safety culture is critical to any business, but particularly in the construction sector. Our staff need to understand what would happen if they were to be injured, how it would impact them, their fellow workmates, and their family and friends. Everyone has that basic and essential right to a safe workplace, and this has become increasingly evident in the current environment we are all working and living in,’’ Mr Boyd said.

It is this core belief of keeping everyone safe that drives Paynter Dixon to foster a culture of continued improvements in safety and a commitment to ongoing FSC accreditation.