Risk management services - reduce your liability
1) Legislative requirements, placed on the controller of premises provide that as a controller you are responsible to Identify Hazards, Assess risks and to eliminate or control those risks. Have you adequately provided for your employees and contractors involved in roof maintenance, cleaning gutters, servicing air conditioners or any other type of work involving heights?
2) To reduce your liability we would suggest that you ensure that your premises are safe and without risk to health. Evaluate, review and identify any actions or steps that may be necessary to control an injury and the likely severity of a fall from Heights. The Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001 clause 35 Chapter 4 Part 4.2 Division 2, provides that a Controller of a Premises must ensure that “safe access is provided to all parts of a place of work to which a person may require access and from which a person may fall”. It also provides that walkways be provided and maintained over roofs that have brittle of fragile roofing material.
3) Training is an often neglected area, failure to provide the necessary management of OH&S, including the reporting of potential hazards and the ability to recognize and act upon control measures often leads to unsafe work Practices. Employers have an obligation under the NSW Occupational Health and Safety Act 2001 to provide the necessary information instruction and training to ensure their employees health. This information, instruction and training must be commensurate with the risk involved. The act also provides for reasonable supervision and that the supervision is undertaken by a competent person.
Section 8 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001, contains a general requirement for employers to ensure the welfare at work of their employees. This also covers that contractors and that other people are not exposed to risk whilst at their premises. With this in mind it is prudent to have an assessment conducted of your premises. Are there risks for access or for areas involving heights? Procure the services of a Height Safety Consultant to provide an assessment of your premises, with a view to formulating a thorough identification of potential Height Safety and access related hazards, and a corresponding solution for each hazard.
Once the Hazards have been identified, the Employer or Controller of a premises should seek to eliminate the risks or if not reasonably practicable to do so, to control the risks. It is important that once identified access is denied to those areas posing risk, until corrective action has been undertaken. When providing Safe Access Systems for roofs and high places for your clients or contractors/employees, what questions should you ask of your nominated Height Safety Provider?
Ask for the competencies of the designer of the system
Ask how the system works, asks the Height Safety Contractor to explain the way the system works and its limitations
Ask if the certification can be given now and into the future for both Standards and Local Authorities that is work cover/work safe.
Ask for product testing results. Does the provider specify the minimum structural requirements for attachment?
Ask what load will be applied to the structure, and then have the engineer assess the situation
Ask if the system will allow for Safe Access to the system and exactly what coverage the system will allow that the whole roof or just to plant etc.
If the current provider is not able to assist with the questions then Safety Anchors engineering consultants are well placed to assist.
Safety Anchors can provide a comprehensive risk management service to provide safe access to roofs, platforms or structures for the permanent provision of safe access to the roof for maintenance, or to assist the safe work practices necessary to carry out the installation. Safety Anchors’s service includes, but is not limited to the following
- Full Access System Design
- System inspection and recertification
- Height safety audits
- National network of authorized installers/distributors
- Compliance reports to the relevant Australian Standards, and for local regulations and codes.
- Nationally recognized and VETAB accredited Safe Working at Heights (MNMG237A) Course.
Safety Anchors can certify all designs and systems and carries its own Professional Indemnity Insurance Policy to cover all areas of expertise. This fact relieves the architect and/or engineer from the responsibility of the design of the safe access system entirely.
31-Mar-2007