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Excessive Dust in Construction

November 2025

Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction Pty Ltd is an international engineering company. Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction Pty Ltd’s undertaking included replace rail plates between Flagstaff Station and Southern Cross Station (“the workplace”).

Reports of excessive dust

The undertaking included processes that generate and disperse dust. Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction Pty Ltd identified the work as high-risk crystalline silica work.

An unrelated company was engaged to conduct works on platform 2 of Flagstaff Station, 500 metres from the workplace. On 18 January 2023, a safety advisor from that company observed a large amount of dust on the platform, coming from the Laing O’Rourke workplace. The unrelated company shut down works on platform 2 due to safety concerns and arranged for an occupational hygienist to attend the platform.

On 19 January 2023, an environmental scientist and occupational hygienist attended the workplace and commenced respirable crystalline silica air monitoring. Three samples were found to exceed the Safe Work Australia Exposure Standard for silica.

Notifiable workplace incident

On 20 January 2023, a labour-hire employee suffered burn injuries whilst operating a jackhammer and concrete saw at the workplace and was admitted to hospital suffering multiple abrasions and burns to his arms from working with wet concrete and nausea from dust inhalation.

Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction Pty Ltd failed to notify WorkSafe of this incident.

WorkSafe investigation

WorkSafe investigation discovered that:

  1. Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction Pty Ltd performed a risk assessment; however, it did not consider the proportion of crystalline silica in the material, nor the frequency and duration of exposure to crystalline silica dust, and
  2. Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction Pty Ltd did not have a Silica Hazard Control Statement.

Enforceable undertaking

The prosecution was discontinued following WorkSafe’s acceptance of the Enforceable Undertaking (‘EU’) proposal advanced by Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction Pty Ltd.

The EU involves six undertakings over a two-year operation period. They are:

  1. Undertaking 1: Provision of support to WorkSafe to enable implementation of the Silica Control Tool by providing funding to WorkSafe and promoting the availability of the tool (estimated cost $370,000).
  2. Undertaking 2 – Development of industry training for the management of respirable crystalline silica (RCS) in civil/rail construction, including PDF/PowerPoint, an e-learning module and an adaptive learning module (estimated cost $152,500).
  3. Undertaking 3 – Supply Chain Forum (Supervision Focused) to provide attendees with increased understanding of the risks associated with RCS and practical steps to follow when supervising works involving RCS (estimated cost $30,000).
  4. Undertaking 4 – Development of New Industry Available Content for Hazardous Dusts and Fibres including animated content and quick reference guides (pictorial), produced in languages other than English (estimated cost $305,00).
  5. Undertaking 5 – Donation to Lung Foundation Australia (estimated cost $50,000).
  6. Undertaking 6 – Media and Communications Plan and Execution to publish and promote material in undertakings 2 to 4 (estimated cost $22,000).

The total estimated cost of the EU is $929,500.

Safety Alerts

September 2025

New Safe Work Australia Resources for employers to manage risks of silica dust in the workplace

To support the recently released model Code of Practice for managing the risks of respirable crystalline silica in the workplace, Safe Work Australia has published resources to assist employers working with silica-containing materials.

The resources include templates, a checklist and case studies:

More silica resources, including fact sheets and infographics, are available on Safe Work Australia’s website (external site) (external site).

Learn how to comply with the model WHS Regulations to effectively manage risks associated with silica dust in the model Code of Practice: Managing risks of respirable crystalline silica in the workplace (external site) (external site).

March  2025

Introducing the Silicosis Support Hub

In response to this need, we are proud to introduce Australia’s Silicosis Support Hub (external site) at silicosis.org.au (external site). Thanks to funding from the NSW Government, and with support from Australia’s leading silicosis experts, ADDRI has developed an extensive patient/carer-centric Hub that provides easy-to-understand information, support and guidance for people impacted – all in one place.