3 minute read
OH&S
Don’t forget to consider your workplace health and safety obligations.By Tim Callinan.
As the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), under the relevant state Health and Safety Act, it’s your duty to ensure the health and safety of workers and other persons in the workplace. This means that as the person responsible, you must seek to eliminate risks to health and safety as far as reasonably practicable. If it’s not possible to eliminate the risks, then they must be minimised as far as reasonably practicable.
Key safety factors to consider when extending or building a new facility
Whether you are extending an existing building or constructing a new building, you are responsible for managing the risks to health and safety in all stages of the build. Yes, this means from project conception, design and construction, right up to decommissioning and dismantling the site.
It’s easier and can be more cost-effective, to carefully consider the health and safety risks during the planning and design phase. Otherwise, you may have to make changes later in the project when a risk becomes evident, possibly through an incident or injury.
Contractors who are engaged to complete the construction work will also need to consider risks to health and safety for the life of the project, and not just during the construction and commissioning phases.
When commissioning the construction of a facility, it’s also a requirement of Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) Regulations to work with the designer to identify potential health and safety risks. The objective is to identify risks that relate to the design which may occur during construction and seek to eliminate or minimise them.
The designer should also be made aware of any information relating to the site of the proposed facility that may create health and safety risks. If the design requires any modifications, the designer should complete these changes. If you decide to make these modifications yourself, then you become responsible for the design duties by law.
When to engage a principal contractor
The cost of an extension or new build also determines your workplace health and safety duties. For example, in Australia there is a requirement to appoint a principal contractor for a construction project that costs $250,000 or more. This kind of construction work is deemed as “high risk”.
If you don’t appoint a principal contractor then you are responsible for the specific duties that a principal contractor must undertake. Such as: l display signs visible to outsiders that highlight your name, 24-hour phone numbers and location of the site office. l prepare a work health and safety management plan before work commences, which includes: l the names, positions, and specific responsibilities of those with health and safety responsibilities l the arrangements for consultation, cooperation, and coordination of activities that you have with others who have work health and safety responsibilities at the site the arrangements in place should a health and safety incident arise l site-specific health and safety rules l the arrangements to ensure that everyone at the workplace is informed of those rules l the arrangements for the collection, assessment, monitoring and review of safe work method statements (SWMSs). Tim is an experienced Health and Safety Practitioner, OHS and Environmental systems Auditor and Tertiary Qualified Engineer. He has held operational and consulting roles, being responsible for Health and Safety and developed, implemented, and maintained OHS and Environmental Management Systems of global organisations in the manufacturing, construction, and logistics industries.
It pays to ask
So, if you are planning to extend or build a new storage facility, careful consideration needs to be given to the legislative health and safety impacts of these works.
By asking the designers and builders the right questions very early on in the process and having robust contractor management processes in place which include contractor selection, evaluation, onboarding, management, and evaluation, there are likely to be significant benefits. Both in terms of avoiding a workplace injury, or having to spend large amounts of money to implement new controls, or modify a design. l
For more advice and support on how to meet your legislative requirements and your specific workplace health and safety objectives, please do not hesitate to contact the OHS Help Desk.
The OH&S Help Desk has been established by the SSAA to support its members. This advisory service is free. Free call 1800 067 313 (Australia); 0800 444 356 (New Zealand); or email admin@selfstorage.com.au.
