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Top Story

The Federal Government is flexing its economic muscle in an attempt to bring about changes in the way the Building and Construction Industry manages workplace safety and health. In the near future any builder wanting to carry out work funded by the Commonwealth will have to have a comprehensive OSH system in place. For smaller businesses it’s not going to be easy.

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Federal Safety System for Building and Construction Industry

The Building and Construction Industry is to get a safety shake-up. The Federal Government will require all companies applying to carry out work for them, to meet safety requirements and get accredited by the Federal Safety Commissioner.

The move comes out of the 2003 Cole Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry, which made around 240 recommendations. While some of the changes to industrial relations made headlines, one of the quiet achievements was the creation of the Federal Safety Commissioner position.

In late 2005 the Federal Safety Commission wrote to all construction companies advising them of the new OSH accreditation scheme. The scheme is a two-stage process, where-by as of March 1 companies tendering for federally funded projects of $6 million or more will need to have “provisional OSH accreditation”. The second stage, which is likely to come into effect in 2007, will extend the scheme to all builders who contract for construction projects with direct or indirect federal funding.

“It’s an attempt by the government to shape workplace safety policy and culture as the client,” explains the Master Builder’s Association’s Kim Richardson. With the Federal Government spending $5 billion dollars annually on ‘normal’ construction projects and a further $15 billion through Auslink on roads, this is a significant piece of the construction pie.

Occupational Safety and Health has generally been the domain of the state government but this move sees the federal government exerting a genuine influence over the industry on a national level. Federal Safety Commissioner Tom Fisher, in a speech to the Master Builder’s Association said that OSH “performance in the building and construction industry has been the subject of some bad press. While acknowledging that we need to do better, I don’t want to dwell on the past, (I) will be concentrating on the positive steps the industry and the Australian Government are taking”.

“Specific requirements for senior management commitment to OSH is a great starting point to try and achieve safer workplaces,” says Darren Kavanagh, the CMFEU’s OSH Advisor. However he continues that Commissioner Fisher’s focus on a ‘just’ system that tries not to focus on allocating blame for accidents, ignores the fact that “the reporting and learning aspects (of an OSH culture) can only influence a certain few. There are organisations that are only influenced by monetary impacts or prosecutions.”

“I think they (Federal Safety Commission) will want to get some runs on the board first,” continues the MBA’s Kim Richardson, “being a new entity it will take some time to get established so firstly they will have to focus on the big players.” However the larger companies are the ones that already have in-house safety systems and the resources to invest in creating a workplace safety culture. Smaller companies, such as those with a turnover of less than $5 or $10 million rarely have the resources or expertise to establish such a program. Warns Richardson, “if there is a weakness, this is where it will occur.”

Safety First has the expertise to provide an Occupation Health and Safety Programme that meets the essential federal requirement – Australian Standards 4801 - and the Safety Supervisor Training that meets Federal Training Organisation requirements. We can cater the program to all businesses, whether big or small.

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Training Gets National Status

A key issue identified in the reviews of Federal and State Occupational Safety and Health legislation is the training provided to safety representatives such as Safety Supervisors.

Training is an important part of developing a workplace safety culture, empowering workers to identify hazards and report them correctly. “By delivering training to specific safety needs, we create a safer environment for staff to work in,” says Safety First Risk Manager Ms Jenni Buchanan.

Safety First, who have been training Safety Supervisors for over 10 years, have recently become a Registered Training Organisation following registration with the Western Australian Training Accreditation Council. Registration with the Council signifies that Safety First have in place systems and processes that ensure the quality of training outcomes for clients and the continual improvement of Safety First’s training services.

Registration also means that nationally recognised training delivered by Safety First will be recognised by employers and training organisations across Australia.

“It all about structure,” continues Ms Buchanan, “if you want staff to perform in a safer way, you need to understand how safety works.”

Safety First has been training Safety Supervisors as part of the Safety First Programme for many years, so what’s new? “The essence of the Safety Supervisor Training still exists,” continues Ms Mulder “that is to train people in order to avoid accidents and injuries at work in the future. To help people make their workplaces genuinely safer.” However, as an RTO, Safety First can now provide a nationally recognised statement of attainment for the nationally endorsed unit of competence delivered within this course.

“It means that students can rely on the outcomes they gain through the training and also ensure that the training process is fair,” says Ms Mulder. Although she points out that training and trainers from Safety First were not being unfair, “the RTO status gives the participants a guarantee”. It requires that systems are in place to deal with complaints and appeals, refunds, recognition of prior learning, the free access to information and access and equity.

It was also of great importance that the course remained effective in getting the safety message across and also that it didn’t become less clear or difficult to teach. Ms Mulder points out, “I worked closely with the trainers themselves to ensure that the course remained good, workable for the people who had to deliver it and useful for the people that sit the course.”

“Oh and now it will also look really good on your Resume!”

Safety First’s Safety Supervisor Training includes BSBCMN411A (Monitor a safe workplace) which is a nationally endorsed unit of competence.

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Data Trail

In Occupational Safety and Health we are always collecting information and data to build a picture of workplace safety. The reporting of hazards, incidents and near misses lies at the heart of keeping workplaces safe. But it is not enough to simply collect the data. The next and most crucial step is act on the data and to learn from the lessons the data is teaching us.

This is true for all organisations trying to manage risk and the Western Australian Fire and Emergency Services (FESA) are certainly one of those. “Data collected from Ash Wednesday fires showed that burning embers, not direct flame contact and heat radiation affected most houses and buildings,” says FESA’s Community Programs Manager Eamonn Lennon in an overview of the campaign. Data from the devastating Canberra bushfires further demonstrated that the burning “embers landed on or near buildings before the arrival of the fire front and for several hours after”. They were also able to pinpoint that the majority of the houses affected were within 100 metres from bushland.

FESA therefore was able to pinpoint an important message that they needed to get across and exactly who they needed to get the message to.

So the “Prepare… Stay and Defend or Go Early” campaign was formulated, advising householders to prepare themselves physically and psychologically to stay and defend their property from “ember attack” or go early. Approximately 34,000 properties in the urban fringe and the south west of the state were identified as being susceptible to ember attack. Career and Volunteer Fire Fighters, Bush Fire Ready Action Groups (BRAG) and related agency personnel - were consulted and then were asked themselves to help get the message out.

But how then was FESA going to get the message across? Further data collected by FESA, from focus groups and market research, told them that people responded best to face-to-face communication. So when the campaign was launched on the 5th of November 2005, volunteer and career Fire Fighters and BRAG members started knocking on the doors of people in the ‘at risk’ areas. They talked to people and provided them with an information pack. There was also a media campaign aimed at raising awareness in newspapers and across the airwaves.

Fortunately last summer there were no major bush-fires, so it’s hard to say just how successful the campaign was. But FESA took steps to ensure the data kept flowing back, by equipping each kit they handed out with a postcard and having professional flashpolls conducted. It allowed FESA to assess how effectively the message was getting across. It also attempted to evaluate individual’s “perception of the risk” that bushfires posed to them, continues Lennon.

The data returning showed that 76% of respondents knew what the advertising campaign was all about and that the campaign had been “very effective” in its targeting. Examples such as this really demonstrate how the data that is collected every day can be extremely important, and that the process never really ends. It also shows that taking that data and acting on it can make all the difference in getting a safety message across.

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