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SOS is proud to work in conjunction with the highly respected law firm Piper Alderman. All SOS clients have access to specialised OHS legal advice ensuring the efficient delivery of both OHS technical and legal services.

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Simple Safety Update - Issue 11 November 2010

Welcome to issue 11 of your Simple Safety Update. It is with a heavy heart that the SOS team acknowledges the devastating mining incident in New Zealand, where 29 men have lost their lives and 29 families have been plunged into grief and sorrow, just before Christmas and what should be a joyful time of year. This is why SOS does what we do and will work tirelessly to ensure that incidents like this do not happen again.

We remind you that, despite the holiday season now is no time to take a break from safety. Christmas is a good time to reflect on what we want to achieve for the new year and get your safety off the ground, or review what you have done and what else you need to do. Remember to take care during the silly season and make sure your staff go home safely to celebrate with their families.

It has been a big year at SOS and we look forward to continuing to work with you and your staff into 2011 for an even safer year ahead. Finally our Simple Safety Stuff Up demonstrates perhaps an overly trusting nature!!

OHS News - Penalty for Failure to Comply with Improvement Notices

TAC Metal Industries Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to comply with improvement notices issued by a WorkSafe Inspector. The company was placed on an adjourned good behaviour undertaking for 18 months, without conviction. They were also ordered to pay $10,000 to the court fund.

The improvement notice was issued in Nov 2009 and TAC Metal Industries Pty Ltd did not make the improvements within the set timeframe. Remember If you require any legal assistance after being issued an improvement notice contact Piper Alderman Lawyers on 8665 5555 or Simple OHS Solutions on 1300 OHS 843.

Your 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.

So far in your schedule you have;

Developed and OHS Policy
Developed a plan for managing safety including allocating responsibilities and budget
Developed specific OHS roles and responsibilities which allocate tasks to all levels across your workplace for safety
Identified what skills you need in your organisation to manage safety and thought about what training people need
Established ways of consulting and communicating with workers about safety to get their ideas and input
Established ways to identify hazards such as developing hazard inspection checklists
Identified risk control using the hierarchy of control
Developed Safe Work Instructions
Developed a Safety Induction
Incident Reporting

Step 11 – OHS Reporting

It is vital that OHS performance is reported to all levels of the organisation. Reporting needs to include not just negative indicators but also the positive things we are achieving like running training, conducting committee meetings, electing health and safety representatives.

Senior Management must know what is going on in their organisation in regard to safety to show due diligence.

Follow this month’s Simple Safety Schedule steps below:

To Do:

Decide who needs reports
Decide what you are going to report on (positive and negative)
Decide how often you are going to report
Decide what happens to reports after they have been reviewed
Allocate responsibility for developing and issuing reports
Keep records of all reports and distribute them to staff, employee representatives and other interested parties