General principles

We strive to conduct activities in a work environment that achieves the following:

• protects the health, safety and welfare of all people affected by our workplace activities
• actively encourages minimising risk in working practices, both at work and off the job
• protect the community and the environment
• provides quality products and services, which meet the needs of our customers.

Workplace health and safety (WHS) is an integral part of the people management of any business.

It is a legal right for all employees to enjoy a safe workplace that complies with WHS legislation.

Effective WHS management will reduce workplace accidents, incidents and injuries.

Everyone is responsible for reporting all hazards, near misses, incidents and injuries to their manager immediately, using the following procedure. All reports must be completed in writing using either the hazard report form (form 8) or incident record/report form (form 9).

The underpinning ideal to this policy is that no task will be undertaken if health, safety, environment and quality standards are to be compromised.

Definitions

Work health and safety is ensured when persons are free from:

• death, injury or illness caused by any workplace, workplace activities or specified high risk plant
• risk of death, injury or illness created by any workplace, workplace activities or specified high risk plant.

Risk:                            Something by its nature having the potential to damage or cause injury.

Hazard:                        The likelihood of that potential being realised.

Dangerous event:        An event at a workplace involving imminent risk of explosion, fire or serious bodily injury.

Work injury:                 An injury to an employer, self-employed person or worker in the course of doing work that requires first aid or medical treatment; or the recurrence, aggravation, acceleration, exacerbation or deterioration of any existing injury in a person in the course of doing work:

• that requires first aid or medical treatment
• to which the work was a contributing factor.

– Serious bodily injury: An injury that causes death; or impairs a person to such an extent that as a consequence of the injury the person becomes an overnight or longer stay patient in a hospital.

– Work-caused illness:   A disease that is contracted by an employer, self-employed person or worker in the course of doing work and to which the work was a contributing factor; or the recurrence, aggravation, acceleration, exacerbation or deterioration in a person of an existing disease in the course of doing work to which the work was a contributing factor.

Responsibilities

To achieve a healthy, low-risk and quality working environment, the commitment and co-operation of all employees, visitors and contractors are essential. To support this policy, we will:

• comply with relevant legislation and statutory requirements, advisory standards, environmental guidelines and industry standards, and allow adequate provision of resources to meet these requirements
• promote health, safety, environmental and quality awareness in the development of standard work practices
• undertake a risk management approach to hazards in our workplace
• provide information, training and instruction to enable all employees to perform their duties effectively
• involve employees in work health, safety, environmental and quality matters and discuss with them ways to reduce workplace hazards and improve control systems
• maintain effective hazard, incident and non-conformance reporting and analysis
• encourage the rehabilitation of employees injured or with diagnosed work-related illnesses through established post-injury management procedures
• set health, safety, environmental and quality objectives and regularly review performance as part of a continuous improvement action plan.

All employees, contractors and visitors are required to:

• comply with all relevant statutory requirements, standard work procedures, advisory standards, Australian standards and, where applicable, provide adequate resources to meet these requirements
• report all injuries, incidents and where appropriate, rectify hazards and faults
• participate in risk management analysis of any incidents and non-conformance to our policies or procedures
• protect all persons, the community and the environment that may be affected by our activities.

Legal requirements

Every employer must keep a record of all work injuries, work-caused illnesses and dangerous events.

By regulation, every employer must give notice of every serious bodily injury, work-caused illness, death or dangerous event to the NSW regulator, Worksafe NSW in the approved form.

Where a serious bodily injury, work-caused illness or dangerous event has occurred, the scene of the accident must not be interfered with in any way unless it is necessary to prevent further injury or damage.

Records must be made in the approved form and kept for 12 months.

Reporting and investigation procedure

1. If any employee identifies a hazard or risk, they should report it to management using the hazard reporting form (form 8).
2. All incidents must be recorded and reported using the incident record/reporting form.
3. The manager of the person making the report must:

• monitor and review effectiveness of controls.

• Take immediate action to prevent any person being exposed to the hazard or risk.

• Conduct an investigation with the employee to:

1. identify the factors which may have contributed to the hazard or incident

2. assess the level of risk associated with the hazard and determine controls or actions to either eliminate the hazard or reduce the risk

3. implement these controls

4. complete the investigation, controls and close-out sections of the form on which the incident, risk or hazard was reported