"Neanderthal thinking" in the building industry needs to be eradicated to put a stop to the startling number of workers committing suicide, says Dave Noonan, national secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).
Figures released by Ozhelp, an independent suicide prevention charity working in Queensland's construction industry, found that male construction workers are almost twice as likely to take their own lives compared to men in Australia generally, while the mortality rate of construction workers aged 15-24 is 2.38 times the national average.
Ozhelp, who on 11 September won a 2009 Life Award for Business and Industry, also found that building workers are six times more likely to die from suicide than from an accident at work and the figure rises to 10 times more likely for apprentices.
"It's very important that people understand that the days of bullying apprentices need to end," said Noonan. "There was an ancient culture of thinking that it [bullying] would help an apprentice to toughen up or something like that. Well that's Neanderthal thinking ... It needs to be made clear that that is no way to educate young people and bring young people into our industry."
Building workers are particularly vulnerable to suicide because of a number of other risk factors that are prevalent in the industry, including alcohol and drug use, relationship breakdowns, long hours and low job security, says Jorgen Gullestrup, head of OzHelp Queensland. "All of these things are in themselves risk factors, but when you put them all together in one industry you almost have the perfect storm," he said.
OzHelp has recently launched an initiative called Mates in Construction which educates building workers on the risks and signs of suicide, while also encouraging workers to nominate themselves as a 'connector'. Connectors receive extra training from OzHelp and wear a green tick on their hard hat, letting other workers know who they can turn to.
“We talk a bit about rebellion and how we’ve had all these rules as men that we’re not really allowed to talk to anyone about personal issues and that we are about breaking those rules and doing things our way,” said Gullestrup.
