Safety rep

[LandyAndy]

Hi Guys
Well I took it on today,Im the safety rep.
No extra pay.
The Leading hand was taking it on,I saw red.
You cant put SAFE and Kev in the same sentance nevermind the same story.
The crew all were saying no way he cant do it,but nobody would pull it on,so I did.
I warned the works supervisor that we will be coming out of the DARK AGES real fast.There are just too many shortcuts taken and BAD work practices going on if I take it on changes will happen.Best part is the workmates are backing me up.
Andrew

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Andy

Are you also the plant operator?

It makes it very difficult for you to observe the workers around you and simultaneously operate the plant.

Not ideal, but you also cant have a hazard wearing the safety hat as well.

Diana

P.S. I hear about safety all the time, my house mate is a safety professional who has done safety systems implementation at Qantas, Qantas link, Star Track, Caltex etc etc

[cartm58]

Lol coming out of dark ages, short cuts, bad work practices

You realise its your workmates that are at least 50% to blame for the above statements.

Your employer obviously has no idea of their legal liability by allowing this state of affairs to continue and neither have your employees.

Ask to do some training, paid leave courses for safety reps usually about 5 days to get to know your rights, obligations and powers.

The best thing you can do is spend 5 minutes before every work starting a job and doing a risk analysis and figuring out how to perform the task with minimal or no risk of injury or death occuring for you, your fellow workers and joe public.

Same with equipment amazing how many people will use dodgey equipment needing repair or service casue they are too lazy to report it or everyone knows its faulty but if you do it this way it still works.

Good luck it can be enjoyable and rewarding can also be a bucket of worms

[Rovernaut]

no one wanted to do it at our work, as they seem to think that You as the safety rep could also be 'legally liable for accidents' if you know of something and it is not acted upon and some one gets injured. Just as if you are one of the workers and you see a fellow workmate carry out an unsafe proceedure and he gets injured or killed and you don't report it you can be at blame too. So it sort of tends to become a sgt Shultz ' I see nothing , Nothing.

[chuck]

That last statement is incorrect - a duly elected safety rep is protected by law & specifically exempted from resonsibility.
The only way a safety rep can be prosecuted is for wilful negligence, which is extremely difficult to prove.
Safety reps need to be protected & encouraged, with out them we would be killing hundreds more people at work every year.

I wish you every success in your new endeavours.

Regards

Chuck

[LandyAndy]

Hi Diana
Safety hat,the Shire dont own one:D:D:D:D
JSAs(Job Safety Anaylysis) have been in for a while but we havent had them,but just got them.At the moment the Works supervisor does them for a big jobs,the 2 grader steerers do their own daily JSA when working alone.
Big problem is nobody has seen a JSA for big jobs AND IT SPELLS OUT EXACTLY WHAT EVERY CREW MEMBER IS TO DO!!!
We have done plenty of courses over the last 12 months as far as Oc Health goes,It is all about the insurance companies prooving the worker is at fault as they have been told and should know better.
Cartm.Im booked into a 5 day oc health course.
We need to sort lots of shortcuts that were instilled into EVERYONE under previous management.
AND AS FAR AS THE LEADING HAND GOES.
Turned up drunk and under the influence of drugs tuesday morning after a BIG long weekend,had a festering SNIFF SORE one 1 nostril too.
We were told make sure he doesnt drive us to the job.
HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN SENT HOME NOT LEFT TO DO TRAFFIC CONTROL!!!!
Andrew

[B92 8NW]

AND AS FAR AS THE LEADING HAND GOES.
Turned up drunk and under the influence of drugs tuesday morning after a BIG long weekend,had a festering SNIFF SORE one 1 nostril too.


Lmao! Love it. "Nah mate, he'll be righhhht!!!"

[RichardK]

Good on you Andrew, make it a safe one, mind you we will have to use your talents on the next trip???

[cartm58]

Andy

Yes your right under any reasonable drug and alcohol work policy he should have been sent home for the day on return to work he should have been counselled about attending work under the influence and he should have been provided with drugs couselling.

As l said 50% of your problem will be workers and the other 50% will be you employer

Both suffer from the she be right policy

[CraigE]

On ya Andy. Too many people winge about safety, but very few will do anything about it. You may find you upset some people and it can be of benefit and detriment. Been there, but if you are like me and believe in your convictions and safety it wont matter.
Best of luck
CraigE
:D

[procrastination inc]

Some advice:

Learn the regs so that when there is an argument about what should be done, you can point to the bit of the frame work that says what must be and what should be done.

Try to leave emotion at the clock station when dealing with these issues.

Not all of it is cut and dried. Risk analysis is an imprecise tool and many people will come up with different answers for the same analysis.

You will have as much trouble changing employee behaviour as you will management. You will often be no ones friend (just like a union rep). Don't take that personally, it is part of the role and can help you to be objective if it doesn't get to you.

Learn as much as you can about safety in general and in your work place in particular. You will be looked to for information and if you can provided it, you will be seen as valuable.

The WA work cover site is a good start, but there are a few holes in it.

Workcover SA's site was very useful for me 5 years ago

Be consultative and consultative. Using decrees to implement OH&S policies means you will have to police them pretty much for ever, having people chose to do the right thing is harder in the short term but best in the long term.

Good luck and have fun, you will learn a lot about how people work

[BMKal]

Good on ya Andy.

There's too many people out there these days who are great at whinging about safety, but not prepared to do anything about it themselves.