A national campaign will specifically look at the safety of forklift operations.

Australia's workplace safety authorities are planning a campaign to place the spotlight on the safe use of forklifts in the grocery and fruit and vegetable wholesale industries.

The national campaign, to be conducted by their joint body, the Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA), is aimed at reducing the rates of incidents and injury from forklift-related tasks such as loading and unloading vehicles.

Forklifts present a well-known hazard in many work environments, involving a high risk of severe work-related injury or fatality to operators, those working around forklifts, and others in the workplaces concerned.

Official statistics show that across Australia in the period 2000 to 2007, there were more than 7,400 work-related injuries where forklifts were the nominated "agency of accident".

The national campaign will specifically look at the safety of forklift operations.

In particular, the campaign aims to highlight the importance of systematically identifying hazards in workplaces and implementing sustainable control measures to eliminate or minimise incidents of harm.

The campaign will begin with a series of industry forums to explain the campaign and highlight the relevant issues.

The forums will be followed by a compliance campaign at targeted sites, with workplace audits expected to begin in April 2010.

Once the outcomes and feedback from the workplace audits are collated and analysed, the results of the campaign should be released by the end of 2010.