Be a Safety Champion

BE A SAFETY CHAMPION

October is Safe Work Month – a time to commit to building safe and healthy workplaces for all Australians.

This year’s theme - ‘Be a Safety Champion’ - demonstrates that anyone, both employers and workers from any occupation or industry can be a champion for work health and safety.

Whilst there has been a steady decline in the rate of workrelated fatalities and workers compensation claims, there is still work to be done. No industry should be unsafe to work in and no death or injury is acceptable. And, because the whole community bears the financial cost of poor WHS, we know that safe and healthy work benefits everyone.

A range of practical resources are available at www. safeworkaustralia.gov.au

COST OF INJURY AND ILLNESS STATISTICS Work-related injuries, illnesses and deaths impose costs on employers, workers and the community. These include both direct costs and indirect costs:

Direct costs include items such as workers’ compensation premiums paid by employers or payments to injured or incapacitated workers from workers’ compensation jurisdictions. Indirect costs include items such as lost productivity, loss of current and future earnings, lost potential output and the cost of providing social welfare programs for injured or incapacitated workers.

The level of costs borne by each economic agent varies with the severity of the injury or disease. While measures of direct costs are understood and reasonably simple to measure, these costs cover only a fraction of the total cost of work-related injury and disease.

For its part, ASIAL is committed to providing members with a range of resources to assist in meeting their workplace, health and safety obligations.

SAFE WORKPLACE MANAGEMENT The Workplace Health & Safety Act 2011 places significant obligations on business operators to demonstrate active participation of Workplace, Health and Safety prevention. Failure to do so can attract fines of up to:

$3 million per breach of a corporation; $600,000 per breach for an officer; $300,000 per breach for an individual and up to five years’ imprisonment.

The ASIAL Safe Workplace Management system is an online workplace health and safety tool tailored to the security industry, to manage your work, health and safety requirements. Processes are available in the system to identify, evaluate and control hazards and risks within the work environment.

Among the system’s features include:

Different access levels and dashboard views with individual login details for employees and contractors; Escalation workflow notifications sent to multiple recipients and ability to raise actions immediately; Employee training and licence registers including expiry dates notifications; Coverage for all sectors via one account (this covers the members who provide both electronics and manpower); Incident reporting and risk assessment with automatic risk calculation; A clear audit trail for all forms and version control for document management; An App for employees to complete forms on the go; (coming soon) Enhanced reporting that can combine information from multiple forms e.g. Hazards and incidents to show high level view; GPS location tagging for images uploaded to incident forms (coming soon)

All of the above is available at annual subscription fee of $395 (including GST)! Subscribers will also have access to the ASIAL SWM System Logo to promote their compliance with WHS requirements.

TO SUBSCRIBE go to asial.com.au or contact us on 1300 127 425 for more information.

WHS ELEARNING COURSES Additional workplace health and safety resources are also available through ASIAL’s eLearning platform which includes a comprehensive course director of online workplace health and safety courses. These include:

Advanced Health and Safety Alcohol and other Drugs in the Workplace Armed Robbery Survival Skills Asbestos Awareness Confined Space Entry Construction Safety Orientation Contractor Management Driver Safety Electrical Safety Emergency Procedures Ergonomics Fatigue Management Fire Safety First Aid Refresher Hazard Identification Health and Safety Representatives Hearing Conservation Hot Work Incident Investigation Injury Management Manual Tasks Mental Health and Safety for Managers Office Safety Personal Protective Equipment Return to Work Programs (NSW) Safe Work Planning (SWMSs and JSAs) Spill Prevention and Control Stress Management Warden Instruction WHS Awareness WHS for Managers WHS Risk Management Work / Life Balance Working Alone Safely Working at Heights Working near Services Working Outdoors Workplace Inspections

To view the full ASIAL eLearning course directory and further information on each course, visit asial.com.au/careers/elearning. Special discounts are available for group bookings of 10 or more.

GUIDELINE FOR DEALING WITH HARASSMENT, BULLYING AND DISCRIMINATION Discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment and bullying of employees in Australian workplaces is illegal. Under State and Federal Work Health and Safety laws employers are legally responsible for protecting employees from harassment, sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace.

Employers should be active in implementing preventative measures so as to reduce the instance of harassment within the workplace through the introduction of relevant policies and awareness programs, including the proper handling of allegations and complaints relating to inappropriate workplace behaviour as soon as they are brought to the organisation’s attention.

ASIAL has developed this guideline to provide members, their management and staff with the tools to prevent, respond to and resolve harassment, sexual harassment and bullying of employees. Members can access the guideline and policy templates from the ASIAL website.

BE A SAFETY CHAMPION Effective work health and safety management practices are consistent with good business outcomes. To make this happen, it is important to ensure that the necessary expertise exists within your organisation. Through membership of ASIAL, you have access to a range of invaluable resources.

As we head into Safe Work Month, remember we all have an obligation to be a safety champion.