Occupational Safety, Health and Injury Management
The department is committed to providing and maintaining a safe and healthy work environment in its workplaces. To support this commitment, the department’s Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Policy and the Safety Management System (SMS) aims to meet or exceed the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 1984 (OSH Act).
The department continues to have a low number of workers compensation claims and manages them in a fair and equitable manner in accordance with the Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981. This includes return to work programs assisting the prompt return of employees to meaningful and productive work following work related injury, illness or disability, through sound injury management and occupational rehabilitation.
The department’s SMS is based on the WorkSafe WA Plan and is a documented and verifiable set of plans, actions, policies and procedures that assists staff to clearly identify their responsibilities and manage them in an organised manner. The goal of the SMS is to continuously improve safety and health and to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. The SMS has four objectives based on the elements of the WorkSafe Plan:
1. To continuously improve DMPs Safety Management System.
2. To improve DMPs OSH consultative mechanisms.
3. To reduce the frequency and severity of safety and health risks.
4. To train, support and motivate staff in OSH.
The SMS is reviewed annually through the Occupational Safety and Health Committee and was audited by an external auditor in 2015, with the department receiving a WorkSafe Gold Certificate of Achievement for its safety management system. All of the recommendations since that audit have been actioned and are complete.
The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Committee is an essential, consultative group established to effectively monitor the department’s safety and health issues and provide resolution on contentious or disputed safety issues. The OSH Committee consists of management staff and elected employee Safety and Health Representatives (SHRs). Meetings are held quarterly to facilitate the development, endorsement, continual improvement and implementation of the SMS that will, so far as is practicable, provide for a safe and healthy workplace. The OSH Committee is supported by the Corporate Executive and chaired by Simon Ridge, Executive Director of the Resources Safety Division.
| Indicator | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safety and Health Representatives | 22 | 25 | 24 | 24 |
| Hazard Notifications | 107 | 169 | 163 | 172 |
| Incident reports | 33 | 29 | 38 | 34 |
| Internal Safety Audits | 6 | 26 | 11 | 15 |
| Ergonomic Assessments | 87 | 95 | 175 | 139 |
| OSH Inductions | 173 | 218 | 125 | 99 |
| OSH Newsflash items | 61 | 135 | 134 | 152 |
| First Aid Training Courses | 14 | 40 | 32 | 19 |
Performance against targets set by PSC OSH and Injury Management
| Measure | Actual results | Results against target | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 (1) | 2016-17 (2) | Target | Comment on result | |
| Number of fatalities | 0 | 0 | 0 | Target met |
| Lost time injury and/or disease incidence rate | 0.65 | 0.26 | 0 or 10 per cent reduction (3) | Target exceeded: 40 per cent reduction |
| Lost time injury and/or disease severity rate | 0 | 0 | 0 or 10 per cent reduction (3) | Target met |
| Percentage of injured workers returned to work | ||||
| (i) within 13 weeks | 100 per cent | 100 per cent | Greater than or equal to 80 per cent | Target exceeded |
| (ii) within 26 weeks | 100 per cent | 100 per cent | Greater than or equal to 80 per cent | Target exceeded |
| Percentage of managers trained in occupational safety, health and injury management responsibilities | 97.5 per cent | 99.2 per cent | Greater than or equal to 80 per cent | Target exceeded |
1 This indicator examines a three year trend and as such the comparison base is to be two years prior to the current reporting year i.e. 2014/15.
2 The current reporting year is 2016/17.
3 The reduction may be calculated over a three year period.
Continuous improvement of the Safety Management System
During 2016-17, the Corporate Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) team had a strong focus on mental health and wellbeing including fitness for duties. A new Health and Wellbeing policy was developed and published along with a Fitness for Work Guideline to assist managers. The department commenced a roll-out of Managing Mental Health training with an aim to have 90 per cent of managers trained by 2020.
The policies and procedures that were reviewed during this period included the Bushfire Preparedness Procedure and the Smoking in the Workplace Guideline that resulted in Mineral House being a smoke free complex.
The OSH Committee underwent an internal review that included a survey, a series of focus groups and interviews with all members. All recommendations and suggestions from this review were accepted and have been actioned.
To increase OSH awareness as well as support and motivate staff, the department introduced and further developed the following improvements to OSH training:
- Comprehensive OSH online induction and face-to-face induction sessions.
- Comprehensive OSH online induction for regional staff.
- Mandatory managers OSH and injury management training including an online component and face-to-face session.
- Quarterly in-house training for Safety and Health Representatives (SHRs).
- Online refresher training every 3 years.
- Introduction of Managing Mental Health in the Workplace.
- Introduction of Managing Staff Health and Well-Being.
The department has continued its scheduled accredited fire warden and fire extinguisher training, first aid officer training, and ensures that all newly elected SHRs are training in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984.
The department showed its commitment to enhancing staff wellbeing through progressing initiatives such as:
- working on Wellness (WOW)
- ergonomic assessments
- one life suicide prevention.