Scaffolding and Working Platforms: Safety and Compliance

About this course.

Falls from height are consistently among the leading causes of death and serious injury in Australian construction, and scaffolds matter because a well-built scaffold provides a stable, guarded working platform that prevents falls in the first place rather than trying to catch a person after one begins. In the hierarchy of controls for working at height, the most effective approach is to eliminate the need to work at height at all; where that is not possible, the next best is a passive fall-prevention device such as a properly designed and guarded scaffold or working platform, which protects everyone on it without relying on individual behaviour. Scaffolds therefore sit high in the hierarchy — above work-positioning systems, fall-arrest harnesses and purely administrative measures — which is why they are so widely used and why their integrity matters so much.

To understand the importance of scaffolding it helps to understand the hierarchy of controls for falls, which Australian WHS duty holders are required to apply. The law requires risks to be managed so far as is reasonably practicable, working down a hierarchy from the most to the least effective control. For working at height the order is, in essence: first, eliminate the risk by doing the work in a way that avoids working at height — for example by prefabricating at ground level and lifting the finished element into place. Where working at height cannot be avoided, the next preference is to provide a passive fall-prevention device — a solid construction such as a scaffold, a properly guarded working platform, or a fixed barrier — that prevents a fall and protects everyone in the area without depending on each person doing something correctly. Below that come work-positioning systems, then fall-arrest systems such as harnesses and lines, and finally administrative controls such as procedures, training and signage, with personal protective equipment relied on last of all.