Meet The Regulators: Workcover NSW

/in /by

Workcover NSW is part of the Safety, Return to Work and Support Division (SRWSD) of the New South Wales state government. It is responsible for the determination of the general policy and strategic direction of not only Workcover NSW but also the Motor Accidents Authority of NSW and the Lifetime Care and Support Authority of NSW.  In many ways, Workcover NSW could be considered the peak regulatory body in the department of workplace health and safety, under the model of Safe Work Australia.

The decision-making body that directs Workcover NSW is comprised of four other amalgamated boards previously active in New South Wales’ safety management. Their role is to determine the future investment policies for a number of funds that fall under Workcover NSW’s mandate. On top of that role, Workcover NSW aims to improve the state’s economic competitiveness by enhancing productive health and safety practices in workplaces.

Responsibilities

  • Work health and safety: establish and maintain harmonised and consistent occupational health and safety laws, and facilitate cooperation between inter-state business and non-government organisations.
  • Licensing and registration: management of New South Wales’ high risk activities permits, licenses and registration including construction induction cards, notifications and relevant fees.
  • NSW workers compensation insurance: the provision of financial protection to workers and their employers in the event of a workplace injury or illness.
  • Workers compensation claims NSW: investigations into reports of incidents or injury, claims for workplace compensation, distribution of benefits and dispute resolution or prevention.
  • Worker rehabilitation and return to work: provides assistance for employers seeking to support workers as they return to work after a workplace injury or illness.

Compliance and Enforcement

Workcover NSW has many compliance and enforcement options at its disposal should such action be necessary. These include:

  • Compilation of information: the legal ability to obtain information from any person or organisation reasonably believed to be related to or able to give evidence about a suspected break of the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act. For more information on this point, read the related legislation here.
  • Enforceable undertakings: a legally binding agreement which determines that a person is obliged to carry out pre-determined requirements outlined in the undertaking. Typically used as an alternative to prosecution.
  • Prosecution and court proceedings: the ability to pursue legal charges against a person or organisation suspected of breaching the WHS Act.

For more information on Workcover NSW, head to their website at www.workcover.nsw.gov.au.

It’s Time To Get Serious About Health and Safety in Australia

/in /by

Workplace safety issues are not always at the top of people’s priorities. Often left to the last minute or delegated down, occupational health and safety is seen as the last kid you’d pick in the schoolyard footy team. Yet with the right amount of teamwork and training, that kid could very well score the game-winning try.

Knowing how to provide a safe working environment means more than workplace safety training and toolbox talks. In the midst of multiple risk assessment forms and red tape, it is all too easy to forget that safety is about people not paperwork.  A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) is responsible for the health and safety standards of any workplace or worksite, but the buck does not stop there. Safework is something everyone needs to practice.

A strong health and safety program is one that encompasses all levels of a business in way that encourages communication and consultation between workers and employers. Risk assessments and other forms of risk management are indeed important factors but they alone cannot account for the diverse range of safety hazards facing all types of businesses. This causes problems because if risk assessments alone cannot provide the solutions people need, then they will attempt to solve OHS problems themselves. Without proper supervision this leads to unsafe work practices.

So where does that leave the occupational health and safety kid in our imagined schoolyard footy team?

The team can either involve this kid in their training regime, finding out what position best suits his level of talent and employing his skill set where it’s needed most. Or the team can simply leave the kid out in the backs and hope he doesn’t cause too much damage. One of these options has clear long-term benefits for the footy team. With the other option, it is just a matter of time before someone slips through the defences.

Occupational health and safety can become a useful and productive element to any business – it’s just a matter of managing it right. Active and regular consultation sessions between managers and workers can identify risks and unproductive work practices. If safety policies are viewed as an
integral part of daily work practices, then workers will place a greater value on its implementation. If managers view safety as something that is not mutually exclusive to productivity, then organisational priorities shift and new innovative forms of safe work procedures can be developed.

How can safety improve productivity?

There are many answers to this question depending on what industry you ask, but for construction workers the solution is quite clear. SafeWorkPro offers a streamlined, automated digital alternative to the traditional paper based method of risk assessment. It’s a simple mobile tool that will help turn the kid everyone picked last for footy into the fastest and strongest player on the field.

So why not try SafeWorkPro for yourself? You can sign up for a free trial today!

How to Write a Risk Assessment

/in /by

It seems like a straightforward process but risk assessments are a crucial part of displaying compliance with OHS laws and regulations. Without risk assessment forms there is no way for the relevant workplace health and safety regulator to determine if you have even attempted to maintain compliant OHS standards. Free risk assessment templates will give you a broad idea of what blank risk assessment forms look like but they won’t do the job for you. Knowing how to perform a risk assessment is relatively straight forward but getting it right involves several steps.

1: Hazard and Risk Identification

Risk assessments in the workplace should identify hazards through:

  • Simple observation
  • Consultation with workers and trade unions
  • Checking the manufacturer’s instructions for equipment safety
  • Reviewing accident and health/safety records

2: Identify who could be harmed

Knowing how to manage risk involves identifying the people who may be susceptible to it. Your risk assessment must be accountable for not just contractors onsite but also managers, employers, visitors, maintenance workers and anyone else who enters the work area. To remain compliant with OHS legislation Australia your completed risk assessment must be accessible and be signed by all of the workers directly involved in the high risk construction work.

3: Decide on a risk assessment plan

Implement a risk management process that either eliminates the identified hazards or controls them within reasonable practice. This can be achieved by:

  • Eliminating the hazards all together (level 1 risk control)
  • Minimising the risks by isolating the associated risk or substituting it with a lower risk (level 2 risk control)
  • Reducing risks by implementing behavioural and administrative controls, and by using personal protective equipment (level 3 risk control)

For more information on risk assessment plans, read about the risk management framework.

4: Record the findings on a risk assessment form

  • To be compliant with OHS legislation Australia, specifically the WHS Act, risk assessments forms must be completed and signed by all duty holders (anyone with access to the worksite).
  • Refer to the risk assessment matrix to gauge a numerical value on the hazards and the associated risks (see risk assessment matrix example below)

5: Review the risk analysis report

High risk construction work is constantly changing so your risk assessment forms must be up to date. Understanding this is a key part of knowing how to conduct a risk assessment that is compliant OHS laws and regulations. Reviewing and writing a risk assessment should become a routine part of your risk assessment workflow. Doing it properly will keep your worksite compliant and safe.
For more information, SafeWorkPro provides various risk assessment templates as well as other health and safety risk assessment forms. But ultimately risk assessment paperwork is time consuming and does not help you improve productivity. Risk assessment software streamlines this entire process into one simple tool available for download today. You can learn more about SafeWorkPro here.

Free Risk Assessment Software: what’s the catch?

/in /by

In the risk management process, you get what you pay for and although the idea of free risk assessment software seems attractive, you should consider a few factors before signing up. Quality risk assessment software should make the risk management process easier, not add another bureaucratic layer. Luckily for you, we know just the type.

Completing a construction risk assessment form to the standards of Safe Work Australia can be achieved quickly through automated risk assessment tools like SafeWorkPro. Risk identification, safe work method statements and risk assessment matrices are all streamlined into one simple tool available on any smart phone or tablet device. As the dangers of high risk construction work change so too do risk assessments in the workplace. But whereas generic risk assessment forms fail to adapt to these changes, risk assessment software was designed specifically to do just that. This in turn will mean less time is spent searching for the proper paperwork and more time spent getting the job done.

At SafeWorkPro we’ve consulted directly with contractors and calculated just how much time risk assessment software can save you. To back up our claim, we’re offering a trial risk assessment software free download period. You can try our construction safety software without any commitment, and experience first hand just how beneficial it is for your workflow. SafeWorkPro’s construction safety software is an investment that will save you time in the risk assessment process and improve safety standards.

How Can a Quality Assessment Review Maintain Safety?

/in /by

In successful hazard and risk management it is important to keep on top of changes to OHS laws and regulations as well as how strongly your own risk assessment policy is performing. Although there is not much the ordinary business owner can do about government OHS legislation Australia, there is a great deal that can be done to improve risk assessment procedures.

Conducting a regular and in depth risk assessment review can improve safety and eliminate unproductive work practices. It is also a way to answer some of those basic risk assessment questions.

Under requirements outlined in the Work Health and Safety Regulations, a person conducting a business or an undertaking (PCBU) must review risk control measures and revise where necessary. Such a review must take place when:

  • a health and safety representative requests a quality assessment review
  • a new risk or a different hazard is identified
  • upcoming workplace changes are likely to present new risks and hazards that current safety measures may not control
  • a safety measure fails to effectively control a risk

To identify these potential issues, a consultation process that involves workers, OHS representatives and managers should consider:

  • if the control measures are effective both on paper and in practice
  • whether the controls measures have inadvertently produced any new risks
  • if all hazards were identified
  • whether new work practices, equipment or materials/substances produced any new or different risks
  • how useful and successful risk assessment training has been for workers
  • how directly involved workers are in risk identification
  • what effect changes to OHS legislation or laws could have current safe operating procedures
  • if the rate and extent of workplace health and safety incidents is decreasing

Any risk assessment review that takes place should be prioritised based on the seriousness and immediacy of the risk. If a hazard is more serious than the control measures used to reduce its associated risk should be review more often. Don’t wait until something goes wrong; begin a review today!

What is Risk and Reasonably Practicable?

/in /by
The world is full of vague terms that sound important but don’t seem to have any concrete meaning.  In occupational health and safety, one of the most broadly defined and confusing terms is ‘reasonably practicable’. So what does it mean and how does it affect your risk management
planning? These are serious risk assessment questions that affect every Australian construction business.

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 requires that duty holders create and maintain an effective safety culture at workplace through active consultation with relevant stakeholders (eg workers, clients, managers), the provision of health and safety information and through other forms of hazard analysis. Specifically the Act requires that all safety risks are either eliminated or minimised as much as is reasonably practicable.

How to define what is reasonably practicable?

A risk assessment is part of determining what is reasonably practicable. The duty holder, usually the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) or the safety manager, must identify the relevant factors that contribute to the risk analysis process.  In other words the PCBU must find a balance between what can be done to eliminate or reduce risks, and what is reasonable to do. The control measures used will be different for many worksites but six considerations must be made.

1: What is the likelihood of a risk occurring?

  • The more likely it is that a risk eventuates; the more may need to be done to eliminate or reduce it.

2: How much harm may result if a risk were to eventuate?

  • The larger the extent of harm; the more importance will be placed on effective control measures.

3: What is known, or should be reasonably known, about the risk and hazard involved?

  • Commonly referred to as the state of knowledge, this is what the duty holder knows about a risk and what he/she should reasonably know about a risk. When determining what should be reasonably known about a risk, a duty holder should consult with workers and other stakeholders, complete a risk assessment, investigate previous risk assessments, and review relevant OHS laws and regulations.

4: What is known, or should be reasonably known about the available control measures to be implemented?

  • Safe Work Australia’s codes of practice outline possible control measures but duty holders are not required by law to follow them. However OHS laws do require that duty holders make themselves aware of the codes of practice to ensure they understand the full scope of what is reasonably practicable in the elimination or reduction of risk.

5: What is the suitability and availability of control measures to eliminate or reduce risk?

  • To ensure a safe workplace whilst maintaining an organisation’s economic competitiveness, the available control measures as well as the practicable ones should be considered. A risk control that is appropriate for one situation or business, may not be practicable for another.

6: What is the cost of eliminating or minimising risks?

  • This point should be considered after all other health and safety options have been checked. The cost of implementing a risk control measure is a definite factor in determining what is reasonably practicable. This is because an organisation’s resources may be limited to a certain extent however it should be noted that the WHS Act clearly favours the prioritisation of safety ahead of cost.

In terms of the full scope and size of the WHS Act, this is but a glimpse of the recommendations on determining what is reasonably practicable. Nonetheless, there are valuable points that any business can apply to their safe operating procedures. For more information on the term reasonably practicable you can read Safe Work Australia’s interpretive guidelines.

Risk assessments: How to keep work safety switched on in an offline environment

/in /by

Out of sight, out of mind

The days of carting around stacks of paperwork at high risk construction work are far behind us. The SafeWorkPro application allows you greater movement by storing all your risk assessment documentation locally. This means that as you move around you will always have access to all your files. Keeping up to date with any newly created documents is also just as simple. When you open your dashboard, an icon on the top right of your screen lets you know if there’s any files waiting for you to sync.
When you regain access to a better internet service, tapping this button will sync the waiting files locally to your device. Even while online, all this hard work is occurring in the background of your device, so you don’t have to worry about constantly checking for updates. This ensures the user optimal flexibility with synchronization and updates, only allowing large downloads to occur when you permit it.

Freedom to Move

Many occupations require work to be undergone in remote regions, often out of reach of internet connectivity. At SafeWorkPro we understand these areas are the ones that require the most meticulous safety procedures, risk assessment document and emergency planning. Therefore we have ensured our applications functionality still runs smoothly when you get that annoying no signal sign on your mobile device. You can still take photos, create documents and assess risk no matter where your work day takes you.

So if you never want to lose access to safety again, sign-up to a trial of SafeWorkPro.

Why Buy Risk Assessments?

/in /by

If you’re running a construction business or managing a worksite then you know the risk assessment process inside and out. You’ll know how to implement a safe work method statement (SWMS), rate a risk assessment matrix and complete a job safety analysis – all just part of remaining compliant with health and safety rules. All this paperwork seems like a hassle (and it is) so why don’t businesses involved in high risk construction work just buy risk assessments?

There’s two answers to this question. Firstly, businesses don’t just get up and buy risk assessments because free risk assessment software alternatives already exist. Otherwise called job safety analysis software, construction safety software or health and safety management software, these digital alternatives to paperwork are known to cut costs and improve productivity. So if you’re a manager or business owner, you’d know it makes more long-term business sense to invest in risk assessment software rather than buy the paperwork (esp SWMS).

The second reason why smart businesses don’t just buy risk assessments is because risk assessments in the workplace have a nasty habit of becoming obsolete as new hazards emerge. To remain compliant with OHS laws, risk assessments must be reviewed and updated as soon as working conditions change and more risks become apparent. So there’s little point buying an expensive SWMS document only to see it become obsolete once a worker finds some rusty nails sticking out of a floorboard.

With the option of risk assessment software free download available, the key lesson here is not to buy risk assessments. With so many alternatives out there and with the limitations of paper-based risk assessments holding back your ability to improve productivity, spending your hard earned cash on a pile of paper work is a waste of resources. You can learn more about these alternative including SafeWorkPro’s risk assessment software here.

Types of Risk in Construction

/in /by

Health risks at work can range from catching a common cold off co-workers to suffering a serious injury. These risks however, are far more prominent in the construction industry, which saw 17 workplace deaths in 2013*. This is a stark figure, especially for a developed and modern country like Australia. Nonetheless the number of Australian worker injuries and fatalities is a solemn reminder of the inherent dangers involved in high risk construction work. 

The central role risk assessments play in preventing injury and fatalities is more evident than ever but there is more to the risk assessment process than paperwork and red tape. According to section 291 of the Work Health and Safety Act, there are 18 types of high risk work. These include construction activities which:

(a) involves a risk of a person falling more than 2 metres; or
(b) is carried out on a telecommunication tower; or
(c) involves demolition of an element of a structure that is load‑bearing or otherwise related to the physical integrity of the structure; or
(d) involves, or is likely to involve, the disturbance of asbestos; or
(e) involves structural alterations or repairs that require temporary support to prevent collapse; or
(f) is carried out in or near a confined space; or
(g) is carried out in or near:
(i) a shaft or trench with an excavated depth greater than 1·5 metres; or
(ii) a tunnel; or
(h) involves the use of explosives; or
(i) is carried out on or near pressurised gas distribution mains or piping; or
(j) is carried out on or near chemical, fuel or refrigerant lines; or
(k) is carried out on or near energised electrical installations or services; or
(l) is carried out in an area that may have a contaminated or flammable atmosphere; or
(m) involves tilt‑up or precast concrete; or
(n) is carried out on, in or adjacent to a road, railway, shipping lane or other traffic corridor that is in use by traffic other than pedestrians; or
(o) is carried out in an area at a workplace in which there is any movement of powered mobile plant; or
(p) is carried out in an area in which there are artificial extremes of temperature; or
(q) is carried out in or near water or other liquid that involves a risk of drowning; or
(r) involves diving work

In many of the above cases, contractors and workers are required to gain special licences and risk assessment training before conducting any work. This is to ensure that those engaging in high risk construction work are aware of the risks involved, trained to deal with these risks and properly accredited. For more information, head to Safe Work Australia’s licensing page.
*Source: Safe Work Australia, Worker fatalities.

Welcome to SafeWorkPro

/in /by

At the centre of SafeWorkPro is an aim to make Australian construction businesses more competitive. We strive to reduce the waste of resources that comes with risk assessments, in a way that will not compromise the safety of employees. As many construction businesses would know, compliance with the Work Health and Safety Act can be challenging, especially when facing the demands of never ending paperwork and administration. Although tried and tested, we believe the paper-based process is obsolete and does not deliver the best possible outcome in terms of safety and productivity. The risk assessment process is unnecessarily long and key safety information is not being delivered to workers when they need it most. So we decided to innovate and the result was a practical, easy to use tool that is available on any smartphone or tablet device.

Our experience working with Cole Contracting, an electrical contracting company based in Brisbane, Australia, instilled within us a high value of safety culture. We found that safe work practices and high productivity are not necessarily contradictory. In turn our tool places an emphasis on getting workers away from paperwork and back on the job quickly. By streamlining the paperwork involved with risk assessment and safe work method statements (SWMS) into digital copies, SafeWorkPro drastically improves productivity. There’s less time spent ticking boxes and filling out forms, and more time spent on the job.

But a quick risk assessment process is useless if it compromises the well-being of workers. So SafeWorkPro helped make 140 SWMS accessible via an easy to use mobile tool. The depth and detail of SafeWorkPro comes from the 17 years experience of Cole Contracting who, using our tool, have completed 964 risk assessments, identified 370 job steps and associated all of those with one of our 140 detailed SWMS. Our method has been successfully tried and tested, all without any major safety incidences – a record we are extremely proud of. Regardless of the numbers, the core motivation for our work is to keep you safe on site and competitive in business.

Safety and productivity does not end at the worksite. Keeping records of risk assessments can be a costly administrative overhead that takes up time and space. All this is necessary to comply with legislation but doing it in a way that will not distract managerial resources is now possible. With WorkSafePro each worker signs the risk assessment on the mobile tool, which is then sent instantly to the manager who now can see in real time who is doing what job and what the risks associated with it are. With our risk assessment’s being downloadable to pdf format, any compliance request can be almost instantly met without the hassle of filing any paperwork.

Quick, safe and compliant work is what drives us at WorkSafePro. In a time of shifting economic winds and uncertain futures, these three factors are an essential part of making any construction business competitive and successful.