The awards recognise Augusta Zadow, a trailblazing advocate for women’s rights in the workplace. Augusta was a founding member of the Working Women’s Trade Union in 1890, fought for women’s suffrage and was appointed the first female inspector of factories in 1895.

“Many of the basic rights at work which are taken for granted today came about because of the work of Augusta and other women like her,” said Executive Director Martyn Campbell.

“I encourage applications from anyone who is working on a project that will improve the workplace health and safety of women and young people through practical solutions, initiatives, research or further education.”

SafeWork SA has $20,000 available to award to initiatives that demonstrate:

• significant benefit provided to women or young workers in the workplace
• transferability and sustainability of the project
• innovation of approach

Previous award recipients have promoted practical tools to increase farm safety; developed and translated multilingual fact sheets to assist women to better understand the worker’s compensation scheme; and used collaborative robots to learn how technology and safety can intersect to improve conditions for young workers.

Alex Thomas, a 2018 award winner for her #PlantASeedForSafety and #SaveALifeListenToYourWife initiative, said the Augusta Zadow Award had been an enormous catalyst for the success of her project.

“SafeWork SA’s support for my campaign has not only enabled me to actively pursue my life’s work with rural communities but has also assisted in sending a clear message to rural women that when it comes to their wellbeing, they are more than willing to go beyond the traditional role of a regulator.

“The generosity of SafeWork SA in their sponsorship of the Augusta Zadow Awards has ultimately empowered me to have conversations that really do have the capacity to save lives”, said Ms Thomas.

Applications close on Monday 19 August 2019.