ABC reported that the union representing workers at Nyrstar's Hobart zinc smelter wants the state government to intervene after a series of workplace accidents and one recent death.

The Construction, Forestry Mining and Energy Union said that 52 year old maintenance worker died a month ago and 650 safety incidents were reported at the plant in the 12 months to January.

The Union's Mr Marshall Reeves said that Workplace Standards is under resourced and the government needs to conduct an inquiry into safety at the smelter.

Mr Reeves said that most incidents are of a similar nature and can be avoided. Most of the injuries seem to be coming from the cell room which is the oldest part of the plant and its heavy manual labor. He said that so a lot of them seem to be soft tissue issues back, injuries shoulder injuries. At one stage in the cell room there were 17 employees on workers comp."

(Sourced from Abc.net)