A WHS regulator has identified two major non-compliance areas, in launching a three-month blitz. It has also released a45-page guide urging employers to map their slip, trip and fall hazards, and outlining the WHS clauses that apply to them. Meanwhile, a union has called for Respect at Work amendments that encourage police to pursue violent offenders in workplace settings.
The two major non-compliance areas are scaffolding work and work near overhead powerlines in the construction industry, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland said in announcing the State-wide blitz, which will run until the end of September.
It said its inspectors will focus on these issues at construction sites, as well as working at heights more generally, which is responsible for a significant number of injuries in the sector.
"The compliance blitz includes an awareness phase where WHSQ will provide Queensland construction businesses within formation and tools to educate and assist in compliance with WHS legislation," the regulator said.
"Following that phase WHS inspectors will assess if workplaces are compliant with the work health and safety laws and take necessary enforcement action when non compliance is detected," it warned.
WHSQ's new Guide to preventing slips, trips and falls at work provides, in the words of the regulator, "valuable information to help understand the causes of slips, trips and falls, as well as simple and inexpensive ways workplaces can manage these hazards".
These include practical tips for:
- controlling the risks in outdoor environments such as car parks and paths;
- managing the risks for worksites that constantly change, such as those exposed to the weather and sites with rotating work activities and duty holders;
- minimising slip, trip and fall risks during and after weather events;
- selecting and maintaining suitable workplace footwear;
- planning for the design of access ways like stairs or ramps; and
- recognising and minimising fatigue and its associated impacts on slip, trip and fall risks.
The guide notes that when embarking on the process of identifying and assessing slip, trip and fall risks, employers should talk to workers and supervisors about slip, trip and fall incidents, near misses and potential hazards.
They should regularly inspect the premises, and sketch or map the work area, marking where slip, trip and fall incidents and hazards have been reported or identified.
The map, which can be a simple drawing, should explicitly mark "hot spots" where repeated incidents or hazards have occurred or been spotted, it says.
The guide says that clauses of the Queensland Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 that aim to "ensure safe entry, exit and movement around the workplace" include clause 40 ("Dutyin relation to general workplace facilities"), which addresses workplace layouts, the designs of floors and other surfaces, and lighting.
Other relevant provisions are clauses 39 ("Provision of information, training and instruction"), 44 ("Provision to workers and use of personal protective equipment"), 294 ("Person who commissions work must consult with designer"), 295 ("Designer must give safety report to person who commissions design"), 314 ("Further health and safety duties–specific sections"), and 315 ("Further health and safety duties–specific risks").
WHSQ noted in launching the document that one in eight of all Queensland workers' compensation claims are caused by slips, trips and falls on the same level, and 60 per cent of these injuries result in at least a week off work.
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The amendments to the Queensland Respect at Work and Other Matters Amendment Bill 2024 were recommended by the Australian Workers Union in its eight-page submission to the Community Safety and Legal Affairs Committee inquiry into the proposed legislation.
As reported by OHS Alert last month, the Bill, if passed, will make a range of work-related changes to the State Anti-Discrimination Act 1991, and amend the State Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 to make the assault of a person in a workplace nan aggravating sentencing factor (see related article).
The AWU, in its submission, welcomes the latter change, saying it "will help deter instances of violence across every industry and workplace, in both the public and private sectors".
But it says consideration should also begiven to clarifying the scope of section 340 ("Serious assaults") of the Queensland Criminal Code 1899.
"This section of the Code provides fora crime of 'serious assault' against offenders who assault, among a range of other circumstances, public officers while that officer is performing a function of their office," the AWU says.
"There has been confusion in the Queensland Health workforce about whether assaults occasioned on certain employees are covered by section 340 of the Code," it says.
"This confusion is being caused by a very high rate of assault in the workplace, with very little charges of 'serious assault' laid on perpetrators who commit violence against staff.
"Despite this intense and escalating violence, the experience of these workers has been that perpetrators are not being charged with 'serious assault' under section 340 of the Code.
"We believe that [ambiguities are]leading to police opting to not utilise this section to charge offenders, despite near-weekly cases of assault that would appear to meet the requirements of a crime of 'serious assault' under the Code.
"The Bill should be amended to clarify the scope of section 340 of the Code to make it clear that the crime of' serious assault' extends to offenders who assault Queensland Health operational workers (eg. security officers, wards people, cleaners, foodservices workers) while they are performing their work."
There is an ongoing need for business to receive updated WHS training, Due Diligence Training, Compliance Training, Occupational violence and aggression Training.
