Health & Safety in practice

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 requires everyone to play their part
The new Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) is now in effect. Whether you’re a business owner, employee or director, the information and tools you need are on the WorkSafe website and will be featured in Under Construction over the coming months.

Your ‘go to’ guide
WorkSafe has prepared a guide to understanding the new health and safety law and how it will be regulated. It will be updated regularly, so visit the website to get the latest information.

Notifiable events
As of 4 April, employers must notify WorkSafe when certain serious work-related injuries, illnesses or incidents (notifiable events) occur.  Worksafe’s new online tool explains what’s notifiable under HSWA and makes understanding the process easier.

Worker engagement and participation
Ensuring workers’ views on health and safety matters are asked for and taken into account is a significant aspect of the new way of thinking under HSWA. Having clear, effective and ongoing ways for workers to suggest improvements or raise concerns on a regular basis can benefit a business and workers in many different ways.

The latest guidance, titled Worker Engagement, Participation and Representation Good Practice Guidelines is now available on the WorkSafe website.

In context
So, what will the new law mean in practice for builders and tradies?

Check out WorkSafe’s description of how it might apply to your typical residential build below:

Just about the first job on any new building site is to put up a safety fence, do the foundation work and lay the slab. Once the slab is ready, it can get pretty hectic – with any number of tradies from any number of companies on site at any one time.

From the outside, to an untrained eye, it can look chaotic. But it needs to be organised chaos. All the parts need to work together to pull the project together.

It’s the same with health and safety. You need strong foundations and everyone needs to work as a team.

Take that typical new house build. There are lots of players involved – the client, maybe an architect, a lead contractor and all the subbies. Under the new Health and Safety at Work Act, they will all have a role to play in keeping not only their own workers safe on site, but others as well.

It’s called ‘overlapping duties’, but in practice what it means is that the person or business that is best placed to manage a risk that affects more than just their own workers has primary responsibility to do so. However, everyone has to play their part.

For example, on a house build, the company that’s contracted to dig the drains has a duty to ensure the excavator is operated safely – with proper measures in place to keep workers on foot away from the digger. But if the lead builder (let’s call them ABC Construction) has workers in the area too, they also have a duty to ensure their people are kept safe. So, there needs to be discussion and agreement between ABC and the drain layer about how the risks associated with the digger are being managed.

The law is designed to encourage cooperation on site. For example, all workers will need access to first aid gear. Given that ABC Construction is going to be there for the duration of the project, it’s likely they will provide first aid facilities.

The tiler that’s working on the bathroom for a couple of days needs to ensure they have access to first aid as well. But they don’t necessarily have to bring their own; they could do that by confirming they can use ABC’s gear if needed.

Whenever a new subbie turns up, there should be an induction process which includes discussion about current site hazards as well as any new hazards they might introduce. In fact, health and safety should be a feature of the tender process for work and there should be an exchange of any relevant information before subbies even arrive on site.

Many building sites already start the day with a tailgate or toolbox talk. Having open lines of communication between workers, supervisors and managers has always been a good idea. The new Act specifically encourages that sort of approach by introducing a duty to engage with workers that applies to all workplaces. It doesn’t set down in stone what form that engagement should take, but a quick daily chat about safety and hazards on site each day is a good place to start.

There are some new worker engagement rules for larger workplaces (with more than 20 workers) and those in high-risk industries, such as construction. These businesses are required to hold an election for a Health and Safety Representative (HSR) if requested by a worker.

They must also consider forming a Health and Safety Committee (HSC) if an HSR or five workers request one. You can read more about the role of HSRs and HSCs at the WorkSafe website.

Health and safety doesn’t have to be difficult and require a lot of paperwork. It’s about identifying risks, talking about them with everyone on site who might be affected, and finding appropriate ways to manage them.

Of course, not all risks can be eliminated – risk is part of life and will always be part of construction work. However, the key is doing what is ‘reasonably practicable’ to control and minimise those risks.

To do so, identify onsite risks, the likelihood of an incident and the consequences of them. Then introduce control measures that reflect the seriousness of the risk.

The introduction of the new law is a great opportunity to review your current approach to health and safety. Think of it as a core part of your business and any project. It’s not something you do once and file away on a shelf – make sure it is part of your daily routine.