Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white narrated clip from a 1956 safety film produced by the Waterside Workers’ Federation (WWF) Film Unit for the Building Workers Industrial Union depicts a dramatised sequence of a building site accident and its aftermath in order to draw attention to the dangers of ignoring union workplace safety advice. Close-ups show dangerous scaffolding and a foreman pressuring Bill to ignore it. Narration highlights the danger before the accident unfolds in a sequence of dramatic shots. A fade-to-black reveals Bill, now in a wheelchair because he failed to seek union assistance.

Educational value points

• The ‘Scaffolding Act’ dismissed by the foreman was the Scaffolding and Lifts Act. A significant advance in work safety legislation, it targeted specific activities in all building workplaces. The 1950s amendments spelt out requirements for the use of scaffolding in order to protect the safety of building workers. Many, like Bill in the clip, were in workplace transition from single-storey houses to multistorey developments and were adjusting to new conditions and safety issues.

• The clip depicts the way building workers could be pressured by employers to ignore workplace safety issues if they were seen to be an encumbrance to getting work completed in a cost- and time-efficient manner. The message in this clip was that building workers need to be aware of the changes to the Scaffolding Act and protect the safety of their workplace, if they have concerns, by seeking union assistance to remind employers of their obligations.

• The risks associated with work on multistorey building projects are illustrated in this clip. In the mid-1950s, building workers were being exposed to these risks in unfamiliar workplace environments. Government priorities had changed from building homes to commercial and industrial development. When height restrictions were lifted, multistorey construction became commonplace and building trade unions had increased concerns for the safety of their workers.

• Film techniques are used skilfully to build up tension and dramatise the accident itself. This involves viewers in the events and persuades them to avoid sharing Bill’s fate. Close-ups of the rotten planks moving and Bill’s feet are a focus for the narration. As the music builds up a rapid interchange of distance and close-up shots covers the sequence of events from the slip to the fall and after. The final poignant scene shows Bill in a wheelchair beside his baby in a pram.

• The clip goes on to detail how, despite Bill being seriously incapacitated through employer negligence, the union still had to fight for his compensation. Compensation laws were first introduced in Australia in the early 20th century, although there were numerous exemptions from employers’ liability for workers’ injuries. Until the Accident Pay strike of 1971, an injured building worker received only 40-55 per cent of their average weekly pay as compensation.

• This clip is from the film The Bones of Building, commissioned by the Building Workers Industrial Union from the Waterside Workers’ Federation Film Unit (WWFFU). It was hoped to emulate the success of the unit’s early films as educational and political tools. This was the first film made by the WWFFU for another union. The foreman who appears in the clip is Jock Levy, one of the founding members of the WWF film unit.