Simple Safety Update - June 2010

National OHS Training Under Review

An exciting review of national health & safety training modules is underway by Innovation and Business Skills Australia. Generic occupational health and safety modules are part of every TAFE course such as industry specific Certificate programs (I, II,III etc) which many employers utilise for traineeships.The review aims to identify if OHS qualifications and the units of competency sufficiently meet the needs of industry and support the regulatory arrangements. This coincides with the introduction of national workplace health and safety laws next year and will focus on identifying changes to existing training programs to address the requirements of the new laws. For more information go to www.ibsa.org.au

Simple Safety Schedule

Let SOS guide you through the steps you need to manage workplace health and safety and meet legislative obligations in the Simple Safety Schedule. Your employees are a great source of information about hazards in your workplace – the people who do the job usually know what can go wrong – but are you actively looking for hazards and checking the effectiveness of hazard controls?

Step 6: Managing your health & safety hazards

Systematically identifying and controlling workplace hazards is really what health and safety is all about. This can be done through:

Inspections

A regular workplace inspection program will provide an avenue to:

• Monitor housekeeping standards
• Check electrical safety
• Monitor aspects of traffic management such as walkways and forklift pre-start checks
• Ensure information on noticeboards is current

Hazard Assessments

Conducting hazard assessments of particular plant or processes:

• Access to moving parts and hazards associated with plant
• Measurement of noise levels
• Looking at how hazardous manual handling is carried out and ways to eliminate the task or reduce the risk factors such as bending, reaching, stretching, repetition, use of force
• Traffic management – separating pedestrians from mobile plant

The OHS Regulations 2007 place specific duties on employers to control hazards in the workplace. Remember, you must consult with your employees when you are identifying and controlling hazards.

Simple OHS Solutions can carry out a hazard assessment at your workplace and provide expert advice and assistance for practical hazard controls.

OHS News/Events

WorkSafe Announces New Forklift Safety Campaign

After a recent spate of forklift incidents, WorkSafe inspectors will again be focussing on enforcing physical separation of forklift and people and effective traffic management plans. WorkSafe have recently released two new posters to promote the message ‘Forklifts and Pedestrians Don’t Mix’. For information, or to download the posters go to www.worksafe.vic.gov.au

Free Seminar – 7 July 2010

WorkSafe is sponsoring this free event held by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society on The Supply Chain – Implications for Manual Handling and Legal Interventions. The seminar will be conducted by Jonathan Grey, Senior Lawyer and Peter McCubbery, Senior Ergonomist, both of WorkSafe. Register at www.ergonomics.org.au

 

Join our mailing list

Subscribe to our email mailing list to receive the monthly issue of Simple Safety Update