WORLD DAY FOR HEALTH & SAFETY @ WORK 2023
Friday 28 April is World Day for Safety and Health at Work and Workers' Memorial Day. This year’s theme is ‘A safe and healthy working environment is a fundamental principle and right at work’. The day provides an opportunity to reflect on how to prevent work-related occupational diseases, deaths, injuries, and illnesses. It is also a day to remember those that have died from a work-related injury or illness. By raising awareness of work health and safety (WHS) issues and taking action to eliminate or minimise health and safety risks at work, we can help prevent further work-related fatalities and injuries.While the number of work-related fatalities in Australia has been steadily decreasing over the last decade, any workplace death is tragic and unacceptable. World Day is a good time to recognise the importance of work health and safety to prevent any work-related fatalities and injuries. WHS risk management can be as simple as a discussion with teammates or your manager. It is also important to remember to manage psychological and mental health risks. We encourage everyone to raise awareness about health and safety in the workplace and recommend visiting these sites for more information. Safe Work Australia - 2023 World DayAust Govt - Mental Health ResourcesLifelinePlease join the Office of Industrial Relations and the Consultative Committee for Work-Related Fatalities and Serious Incidents on Workers’ Memorial Day to commemorate those who have lost their life because of their work.When: Friday 28 April 2023 at 7:30amWhere: Watch live on the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland Facebook page
How to Report a Hazard in the Workplace
Do you know the process of reporting a hazard in the workplace?The importance of reporting a hazard in a timely manner is a major component of the WorkPac accident prevention program.If you see a hazard, which can be identified from:observation;inspection;task observation; oras a result of an accident investigation.Please follow the chart below. Our Safety Incident/Hazard Report can be found here If you have a safety issue or concern, no matter how big or small, let us know.All reports are treated with strict confidentiality and personally managed by one of our Risk Managers.Our Safety Incident/Hazard Report can be found here
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Cyclone Season - Are you prepared?
Cyclone season occurs from November through to April in Australia so it’s a good idea to have an emergency kit and household plan organised. Be prepared this season.Get cyclone smartAt work: Make sure you know and follow your workplace emergency evacuation procedure;At home: Trim treetops and ensure branches are clear of your home, clear your property of loose material that might cause damage during extreme weather and clear out your gutters;Create an emergency contact list;Organise an emergency management plan and clearly communicate this to all of your family;Prepare an emergency kit, check out some suggestions below;Here are some handy planning websites.The Queensland Government has a great website availableThe WA Department of Fire and Emergency services also offer resources Visit the QLD Government Alerts and warnings pageFor current alerts and warnings in WA click Don't forget your petsOur pets are so special, make sure you don’t forget to pack for them too! Ensure they have a collar, are clearly identifiable and have a secure pet carrier, leash or harness on hand. Include them in your emergency plan – if there’s a weather warning, keep your animals close.Handy emergency contactsLife threatening emergenciesTelephone Triple Zero (000). For life threatening, critical or serious situations only.State Emergency Service (SES) flood and storm assistanceTelephone: 132 500 for help with a damaged roof, rising flood water, trees fallen on buildings, or storm damage.Local CouncilVisit your local council website for information for your specific location, or look up your local council contact numbers.Here's the QLD list.Here's the WA ListHere's the NT ListWeather and warningsVisit the Bureau of Meteorology web site at www.bom.gov.auAlternatively, visit the Bureau's Telephone Weather Services Directory for Queensland.Additionally, tune to your local radio station for warnings and advice. Details of your local ABC radio frequency and local web-page can be obtained from www.abc.net.au/local.Animal emergenciesWildlife Hotline: To report wildlife emergencies, marine strandings and pollution incidents, call the Wildlife Hotline on 1300 130 372.To report lost or missing animals during times of disaster and emergency events visit your state RSPCA lost/found web site:QueenslandNew South WalesVictoriaSouth Australia Western Australia Northern Territory TasmaniaAustralian Capital Territory Should you need to report an animal in distress, or you have concerns for the welfare of an animal, please contact one of the following options:RSPCA websiteEmergency Animal Disease and Biosecurity MattersSocial mediaFollow your state police service, SES, fire and rescue service and local council for real time information.
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WorkPac named finalist in 2017 Hunter Safety Awards
WorkPac has been named a finalist in the 2017 Hunter Safety Awards for the Most Innovative Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) Idea category for large organisations.WorkPac won the 2016 Hunter Safety Award for best WHS Management System and has been recognised for its industry-leading safety in Hunter workplaces.Winners will be announced at the Hunter Safety Awards gala event on Friday 17th March 2017.National Safety and Risk Manager, Rachel Pearse says WorkPac wanted to support employees and facilitate discussion on fatigue and mental health while addressing the key challenges of engaging with a geographically diverse workforce.“Our initiative was to broaden our communication approach of safety messages across platforms like video and social media,” Ms Pearse said.“Our first message focused on fatigue management and our second message focused on mental health and wellbeing which are two really important issues in our line of work,” she said.Across the industries WorkPac services, the statistics speak for themselves. A construction worker is six times more likely to commit suicide than die as a result of a workplace incident. If the worker is under 24 years of age, the risk increases by 10 times.The Minerals Council of Australia’s blueprint for mental health and wellbeing estimates costs to the resources industry, including lowered productivity, is between $320 million to $450 million per year or around $300,000 to $400,000 for an average worksite of 170 people. Luke Tresidder, Business Centre Manager at WorkPac Hunter Valley says the WorkPac team wanted to do more than produce posters and flyers or transfer the responsibility over to an external Employee Assistance Program provider when dealing with mental health issues.“We engaged with our workforce and identified that traditional forms of communication were no longer the only way to reach our field team. We didn’t want to wait around for tragic statistics before we formulated an initiative to address fatigue and mental health,” Mr Tresidder said.“We knew we needed to implement new ways to reach our workforce and our research pointed to social media, video communication and real people communicating sincere messages,” he said.WorkPac’s Head of Marketing Tracey Mesken says Facebook now serves more than 8 billion video views per day.“That’s double the amount the video content users were consuming in early 2015,” Ms Mesken said.“LinkedIn and Facebook allowed us to elevate workplace challenges that have influencing factors external to the workplace, into social networks enabling a peer engagement forum.“The campaign drove greater awareness and acceptance by our employees to openly discuss these challenging topics.“To be a finalist again is a fantastic achievement and we are happy to be recognised two years running, this is a real credit to the Hunter Valley and Newcastle teams’ efforts.”WorkPac is proud to be finalists in what will be a hotly contended category.Regardless of the outcome, WorkPac congratulates all nominees for their contributions towards making workplaces in the Hunter Region safe. WorkPac will continue to explore video and social media amplification of messages using these platforms to further enhance safety education and communication.In its 20 years of operation, WorkPac has experienced no fatalities or prosecutions and has one of the lowest Lost Time Injury Frequency Rates in the contingent labour industry.
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