Health and Safety at Council

Council's safety alert system is a tool for communicating safety matters to employees, visitors, contractors and volunteers.

Work Place Health and Safety alerts are alerts regarding key risks and hazards for equipment, workplaces or work situations.

Safety alerts are posted by WHS Queensland following a workplace incident. The alerts are posted on the WHS Queensland website.

In addition to the WHS Queensland safety alerts, council communicates its learnings through the Council Safety Alert system. This is a product of measure to ensure the timely and effective implementation of suitable controls to prevent similar incidents from occurring.

Council has a requirement for all injury, illness and incidents to be reported regardless of the outcome. Any event that has potential to or has impacted on the health and safety of a person must be reported to the council representative that has engaged your business or is coordinating the event. Council views any minor incident or event as an opportunity to prevent something more significant occurring in the future. For this reason, all incidents and near misses must be reported.

Notifying an incident to WHS Queensland

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 sets out what sort of incidents are notifiable to WHS Queensland. An incident is notifiable if it arises out of the conduct of a business or undertaking and results in the death, serious injury or serious illness of a person or involves a dangerous incident.

The WHS Queensland website clearly defines when an injury or illness is serious and what is a dangerous incident. It is important that all workers are aware of the varying degrees of injury, illness and incidents so you can determine when you need to notify WHS Queensland of an event.

Definition of an incident

An incident is an unplanned, undesired event that hinders completion of a task and may cause injury, illness, or property damage or some combination of all three in varying degrees from minor to catastrophic.

'Unplanned and undesired' does not mean:

• unable to prevent
• unable to prepare for.

Crisis planning is how we prepare for serious incidents that require response for mitigation.

Definition of a near miss

A near miss is a subset of incidents that could have resulted in injury, illness or property damage, if given a different set of circumstances, but didn't. Near misses are also known as 'close calls.' Perhaps the better term to consider is 'near hit’.

Definition of an accident

An accident is often similar to incident, but supports the mindset that it could not have been prevented. An accident is the opposite of the fundamental intentions of a safety program, which is to find hazards, fix hazard, and prevent incidents. When we accept that accidents have no cause, we assume that they will happen again.

All workplaces in Queensland are bound by the following legislation:

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (the Act)
• Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 and associated Codes of Practice
• Australian Standards.

It is important to understand how workplace health and safety allows us to achieve a safer workplace.

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 provides a framework to protect the health, safety and welfare of all workers at work. It also protects the health and safety of all other people who might be affected by the work.

All workers are protected by the WHS Act, including:

• employees
• contractors
• subcontractors
• outworkers
• apprentices and trainees
• work experience students
• volunteers
• employers who perform work.

The Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 supports the Act and describes how to prevent or minimise a risk at your workplace. You must do what the regulation says. If a risk at your workplace is not covered by the regulation or code of practice then you must:

• choose an appropriate way to manage exposure to the risk
• eliminate or minimise risks so far as is reasonably practicable.

Codes of Practice provide practical guidance for people who have work health and safety duties. These codes give guidance on:

• how to achieve the standards required under the Act
• effective ways to identify and manage risks.

Codes of practice apply to anyone who has a duty of care in the circumstances described in the code. In most cases, following an approved code of practice would achieve compliance with the health and safety duties in the Act.

Like regulations, codes of practice deal with particular issues and do not cover all hazards or risk. Duty holders must consider all risks associated with work, not only those that are regulated.

Council uses the Australian Standards as a minimum level of compliance.

Standards are published documents that are designed to provide guidance to help ensure safety, performance and reliability through the specifications of goods, services and systems.

Conforming to Standards

Standards are not laws, but where the WHS laws say you must conform to specific Standards, a failure to do so may result in a breach of the WHS laws. The Australian Standards referenced in the WHS Act and Regulations can be referenced on the SAI Global website.

If an approved Code of Practice recommends following a specific Standard, then it would be reasonable to consider the specified Standard forms part of that approved Code of Practice. However, following Codes of Practice is not mandatory. Compliance with the WHS Act and Regulations may be achieved by following another method if it provides an equivalent or higher standard of work health and safety than the Code of Practice.

Council’s higher standard of work health and safety

Council uses the Australian Standards as a minimum level of compliance. There are a number of standards that council has adopted that exceed these requirements. Council’s additional requirements are highlighted below:

Council’s outdoor clothing standard

Council’s outdoor clothing standard requires all outdoor workers including employees, contractors and volunteers to comply with the following standard:

• Hats with brims of 7.5 - 8 cm minimum or light weight legionnaires cap with neck flap back to shade face and back of neck
• Safety helmet with a brim attachment and a neck flap to shade face and back of neck
• Loose fitting, long sleeved, collared shirt
• Long trousers
• Sunscreen (SPF 30+ or better broad spectrum and water-resistant) and zinc cream or lip balm.

Operating a quick cut saw

Council’s PPE Minimum Requirement Chart[349KB] details the PPE minimum requirement for operating a quick cut saw. Following an incident, council has a higher standard that requires all quick cut saw operators to wear a face shield when operating a quick cut saw.

Council and its contractors are required by law to comply with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulations. The following links on the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator website will assist contractors understand their responsibilities.

• Chain of responsibility
• Fatigue management
• Loading

Council's corporate inductions for contractors and volunteers is administered via the Altora Induction Program.

Council's online safety induction for contractors and volunteers is administrated via the Altora Induction Program. Prior to performing the induction, you are required to register with Altora.

Council’s administrators in the Altora system are responsible for ensuring that volunteers have completed their induction prior to starting work on site.

User agreement

Step 6 of the induction process requires inductees to read the User Agreement and Terms of Using the Induction. The User Agreement includes Council Privacy Policy and Axion’s Privacy Policy.

Completion certificate

Once you have completed the online safety induction, you will have the option to print out a copy of your Statement of Completion Certificate. However, council maintains an online register that confirms the time and date that you completed the induction so it is not necessary to print out this the certificate.