SAFETY Archives - Page 6 of 8

A construction site can be a real hotspot for hand injuries. Due to their frequency, we want to look at the impact of these injuries and how to manage them better.

The types of injuries

There are a fair few ways these occur on-site. The most common include:

Crushed hands and fingers
Cuts and punctures
Burns
Electric shock

The causes are often the result of equipment malfunctions, falling objects, compression between objects, electrical faults, and insufficient training or instruction.

Hand tools

Hand tools are a huge contributor to hand related injuries in the workplace. When using common tools such as hammers, hand saws, pliers, angle grinders etc, fatigue, rushing, complacency, using faulty or damaged tools or a lack of training can often lead to workers injuring themselves.

The long-term impact

The long-term impact of a hand injury ranges from minor to severe. A minor injury could mean changes in grip strength and reduced range of motion of the fingers. In more serious cases, a worker may lose the ability to use their hand.

Raise Awareness

Awareness is everything. You can educate your workers in the following ways:

Pre-starts to ensure that the tool is in good working condition. Any sign of damage/wear and tear, do not use it. Place it out of service so no one else accidentally uses it and replace the tool (if it’s bent, don’t bend it back – replace it!)
Plan the task and take your time. Ensure you have a firm grip on the tool and check your surroundings
Use the correct tool for the job and follow any relevant manufacturer instructions
Think about the potential reaction once an action has been made (if you’re pulling a nog out, how hard do you have to pull/hit it, do you have a solid footing, what/who is behind you).
Hand placement, hand placement, hand placement! – Ensure your free hand is as far away from the area as possible. It may be needed to hold the item steady, but ensure it is as far away from blades/hammerheads as possible.
Hold safety demos for all dangerous machinery (some tool suppliers have demo and training courses available).
When holding toolbox meetings, regularly highlight hand safety and discuss with the team key hazards and controls so its kept front of mind
Ensure appropriate PPE is worn e.g. gloves

This is more than just talking to your workers, as a supervisor/manager you need to give your workers adequate information, instruction and supervision when it comes to health and safety on-site. Real-life examples of incidents that have life-changing effects on workers (e.g. health, livelihood) can further highlight the importance of hand safety.

Ensure the workplace is regularly monitored and reviewed to ensure controls are in place / being used and that they remain effective. One way to do this is to complete a site review in the HazardCo app.

If you’ve got a question about hand injuries or any other health and safety matter, the HazardCo Advisory Team is here to help. Give them a call on 1800 954 702.

When it comes to incidents, a common misconception is that you need to report incidents to HazardCo immediately. This is not the case. Reporting to HazardCo can often happen later once details of the incident have been established. The only time an incident should be reported immediately is when it falls under the criteria of being a notifiable incident, which means it needs to be reported to the Regulator (WorkSafe/SafeWork).

The HazardCo Safety Advisory team assesses all incidents that get reported via the ‘Report an Incident’ function on the HazardCo App. If the incident is notifiable to the Regulator, we will contact you to provide support, determine further details and ensure that the appropriate steps have been taken.

Reporting an incident on the HazardCo App

Go to ‘Report an Incident’ on the HazardCo App to create a new record
Select the site location where the incident occurred
Select the date that the incident occurred on
List the people that were involved in the incident
Select the type of incident (near miss, injury, illness, other, incident)
Select the treatment received (first aid, medical centre, hospital, unsure, none)
Describe what happened: This is where you enter initial information about the incident. List the facts that are known so far. Such as :
- what job or activity was being performed at the time.
- What plant, equipment or tools were being used
- What went wrong
- What was the injury or damage (or the potential)
- What happened immediately after the incident

Below is an example of an incident report that could be improved upon and what good reporting looks like.

Initial incident report Description
Geoff hurt his leg.

What’s wrong with it?
This tells us nothing about Geoff’s injury, how he is or how it happened.

What does good reporting look like
Geoff hurt his leg whilst carrying timber planks around the site by himself. The load he was carrying was awkward and there were star pickets uncapped near where he was walking. Geoff scraped his leg on one of the uncapped start pickets and dropped the timber. He suffered a graze to the back of his right leg. Geoff was checked over by Bob, a first aider. The grace was cleaned and a band-aid was applied to his graze. Geoff rested for a few minutes and was able to return to work.

What’s good about it?
See how good reporting tells us everything that we need to know about the incident, only includes the facts, and can still be done in a quick and easy way. The summary provided key information such as:

What Geoff was doing prior/during the incident
What went wrong
What injury was sustained
What occured after the incident and if applicable, what the treatment was

Need Help?
Reach out to HazardCo and speak to one of our expert Health and Safety Advisors if you have any questions or need support for incidents or near misses on your site. You can contact us on 1800 954 702.

To put it simply, health and safety regulators (WorkSafe / SafeWork) work with you and your workers to keep you safe and healthy. Their main goal is to ensure that across Australia, businesses are safe and healthy environments. It’s important to know that not all visits are pre-arranged and inspectors are allowed to show up at any reasonable time, regardless of whether or not you’re there. So, what should you expect when they come a-knocking?

What does a site visit look like?

Typically a visit from WorkSafe/SafeWork follows the below process:

Step 1: Conversation

A friendly chat isn’t that scary, right? When the WorkSafe/SafeWork inspector first arrives, they’ll have a conversation. This discussion is a two-way street where they’ll be looking to learn about your business, what risks you’ve identified, the actions you’re completing to minimise them and answer any questions you may have. Ensure you use this opportunity to ask questions and seek clarification if anything doesn’t make sense.

Step 2: Observation

Following the chat, the inspector will usually take a walk around your worksite to have a look around. Sometimes its a general walk around, other times it may be focusing on a particular area or activity.

If the inspector sees anything concerning during the walkabout, they will discuss this with you further.

Step 3: Processes and Documentation

At this stage, the inspector might ask to see what kind of processes and safe practices you have. This could include anything from your risk assessments, worker’s licenses or training certificates, machine maintenance logs, to incident reports. The focus will be on whether your processes and records demonstrate good health and safety practices for your worksite, workers and business.

So what are inspectors allowed to do during the visit?

Inspectors have the right to:

ask you, your employees or other people questions
take photographs, recordings and measurements
ask to see your documents, make copies or take the documents
take items away with them for examination, testing or for use as evidence

What happens if an issue is found?

If the inspector does find an issue, you and the inspector will discuss what needs to be done to fix it. The three main outcomes issued by the inspector are an improvement notice, prohibition notice, or an infringement notice.

Improvement notices – The most common type of notice which directs a person to address an identified health and safety risk in a specified time. The inspector will explain what was identified, how things need to change, and the timeframe in which it needs to be completed.
Prohibition notices – Directs the business to stop doing a particular thing that involves a serious risk to health or safety. For example, stopping a specific activity or instructing you to stop using a dangerous piece of machinery. The notice will tell you what needs to be fixed.
An infringement notice – This notice, or fine, is a penalty for breaking the law. Depending on your state or territory it can include an on-the-spot fine for breaching certain health and safety laws and may lead to prosecution.

Using HazardCo can cut the time you spend on health and safety admin in half and can guide you through what you need to do to keep your workers and your business safe.

Of course, if there are any questions or concerns, just call us at HazardCo for help on 1800 954 702.

We know chatting to your team about health and safety isn’t the most exciting topic, however it is the most important! Health and safety is the responsibility of everyone on-site, so it’s important to get your team and subbies involved. Thankfully it’s easy to get started, simply scan in/out of site every day.

As the main builder on-site, one of the timesaving HazardCo tools at your fingertips is the site-specific QR code located on your HazardCo Hazard Board. Getting everyone to scan in and out every day benefits you because:

Even if you’re not on-site you still know who is – and it’s all saved in your HazardCo Hub so you can check the site history whenever you need to.
Anyone scanning in for the first time can complete a site induction where the worker is made aware of important site specific information such as emergency contacts and site safety rules.
Gives workers quick and easy access to the Site Specific Safety Plan (SSSP) which covers important information around some key things like:
- health and safety roles and responsibilities
- Key hazards and control measures onsite
- Incident and emergency management
On Project Plus sites, HazardCo’s Digital Site Noticeboard feature enables workers scanning in the ability to view site specific notices on their HazardCo App, where you can communicate any hazards or risks that may be present on-site.
Simply scanning in gives people an important daily reminder to be aware of health and safety – and we all know the more we think and talk about safety , the more we look out for hazards and ways to control the risks on-site.
Getting everyone’s participation shares the health and safety responsibility with everyone on-site.

If previously you’ve had subbies or team members who don’t use the QR code to scan in/out daily, here are a few ideas to get them using the QR code regularly:

Use your next Toolbox Meeting to walk everyone through the process of scanning in and out using the QR code on your Hazard Boards, making sure the team has the HazardCo App downloaded and set up.
If you need to use some incentive, you could shout the team pizza and a cold beverage on Friday afternoon if everyone scans in and out every day that week… it gets the team working together to remind each other.
You could make it part of your contract with any new subbies, and add it to the employment agreement you have with your own team. Or, go a step further and require subbies to be HazardCo members in order to win contracts on your projects.

There are lots of good reasons to get everyone scanning that QR code so get your team on board with it today.

The Toolbox Meeting feature on the HazardCo App means you’ll no longer have to carry around paperwork for your meetings. Our app makes it easy for you to keep energy levels high and hold everyone’s attention with short and focused talks. With the HazardCo App running on your smartphone, you can easily move the meeting to the most relevant place on-site. One man band? No worries, you can use the toolbox feature to capture conversations when you talk to other subbies on-site.

On the HazardCo App, the Toolbox Meeting feature guides you through a team chat with an easy to follow guide that helps you cover all the necessary points and capture key details as you go. It means you don’t need to do any special preparation for your toolbox meeting, just make the time, follow the app, and you’ll get a completed report on the Hub at the end which you can download or email to others. Plus, save yourself some time by using your voice to text feature on your phone which comes as part of most Android and iPhone devices, look for the microphone icon on the keyboard pop up. You can also record attendees with a photo.

Using HazardCo Toolbox Meetings gives you another easy way to keep the team involved too – simply get someone different to run the meeting each week. It keeps everyone thinking more about health and safety, and it shares the admin around. And did you know that the Toolbox Meeting feature isn’t just for toolboxes, you can also use it to conduct safety meetings, pre-start meetings, and committee meetings.

Toolbox Meetings are a vital component of keeping your site safe, and with HazardCo in the palm of your hand, you have all the tools you need for great toolbox meetings with your wider crew.

When you’re able to get back on site after a flood or storm, here are the hazards, risks and control measures you should consider to help reduce the risk of injury and illness to yourself, your workers and others involved in the clean up and repair effort.

Some common hazards following a storm or flood:

Electrical – Water damage, loss of power, damaged electrical installations
Biological hazards and fauna – Contaminated floodwater and displaced fauna
Asbestos – Damaged building materials that contain asbestos
Slips, trips and falls – Uneven surfaces from storm/ floods
Hazardous chemicals – Buried, moved or damaged hazardous chemical containers including corrosives, oils, pesticides
Psychological stress – Remember to check on your team, the emotional impacts of a storm or flood can be overwhelming, particularly if they are dealing with personal damage

Risk Management

Identify the hazards – What are the hazards on your site including any newly introduced hazards due to the storm or flood?
Assess the level of risk – What is the likelihood of exposure to the hazard, and the consequences (what harm could be done)?
Control the risk – Identify and implement suitable control measures and ensure the risk has been reduced to an acceptable level prior to undertaking related work.
Review the control measures – Regularly assess how effective the controls are. It’s important to stop work and reassess if conditions change or if you have introduced any new hazards.

Safety tips when undertaking the cleanup and repair work

Work out the order of the work to be done so that new risks are not introduced, e.g. if you move things in the wrong order is there a possibility of creating instability.
Ensure surfaces are stable and access to areas with unstable floors are safe.
Have a licensed electrical contractor check any electrical appliances or equipment you suspect has been submerged or damaged.
Check in and under objects before attempting to move them as snakes, spiders and other undomesticated animals may be taking refuge from flood waters.
Consider workers performing cleanup in teams/ pairs where possible.
Wash your hands well before eating and drinking, after contact with mud, flood water and contaminated items and equipment.
Make sure that workers have the correct personal protective equipment to prevent injuries such as cuts and scratches or infections from contaminated flood water.
Check that your workers and contractors are not fatigued or potentially unfit to work, i.e due to mental health stressors.
Agree on what situations workers should remove themselves from, where the risk cannot be reduced to an acceptable level. Some work may have to be delayed until water subsides and other factors.
Ensure emergency procedures are discussed for the site with all workers.

Using machinery and equipment for work on-site puts workers in close contact with powerful and fast moving tools. This makes getting the job done easier and more efficient but it does also present some risks to workers health and safety. If a worker comes into contact with machinery or equipment in an unsafe way, it can cause significant harm or injury. It is common practice to use guarding on machinery and equipment to create a barrier between the workers and the moving parts that can cause harm or injury.

Common risks and Hazards
Machinery and equipment guarding is designed to eliminate or minimise the risk of workers being harmed while completing their work. It is important to assess the hazards and risks involved with all the machinery and equipment used in the workplace. If machinery and equipment is not guarded properly, workers can sustain significant injuries due to coming in contact with moving parts.

Some common injuries are:

Cuts
Burns
Electric Shocks
Degloving
Amputations

Because there is potential for serious harm when using machinery and equipment, it is necessary to plan a safe approach when conducting a job. This will help identify the hazards of working with machinery and equipment.

The hazard management process includes:

Identifying hazards
Assessing the hazard – decide if the identified hazards are significant
Assessing the risk – decide how likely and seriously a worker could be harmed
Controlling the hazard – either by eliminating, isolating or minimising the hazard
Regularly reviewing and monitoring the hazards and risks.
Create safe working methods like Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)

Choosing the right guarding
There are many different types of guards that can be used to protect workers from being harmed when using machinery and equipment. Here are some common types of guarding and examples of when they are used:

Fixed – Screwed or fixed in place guarding to protect users from hazards. – E.g. grinders
Self closing – the cutting edge only opens to the extent necessary to cut the workpiece E.g. drop saw
Adjustable – Safety guarding that is movable. The guard is in place to protect the user but moves to allow the function of the tool. E.g. drop saws and skill saws

When choosing a guard, It is important to make sure the guard can actually prevent an operator from reaching into the dangerous parts of machinery and equipment. To make sure the operators are protected from the dangerous parts, the safest guarding must take into account an operator’s ability to reach into or come in contact with moving parts.

There are many different types of guards to choose from. It is important to choose guards that eliminate the potential for harm. If this is not possible, then guards should be chosen that isolate or minimise the risk to workers. It is very important that guarding is not removed or tampered with as this will increase the risk of harm to workers.

Control hierarchy

Elimination involves removing the risk to health and safety from the work site. It is the most effective risk control and should always be prioritised.
Minimisation is used when a risk cannot be eliminated. This is done using: substitution, isolation, engineering, administration and PPE.

Training/ Competency
Workers should be trained to competently complete the work they are required to do. Workers should be trained and educated on the purpose and function of the different types of guarding in the workplace. Make sure that workers have the appropriate training, supervision, and qualification (if required) to safely use the necessary machinery and equipment. Keep an up-to-date register of what machinery and equipment workers are trained on and competent in using.

If you have any questions about guarding machinery and equipment, give HazardCo a call on 1800 954 702.

Machinery and equipment are used every day on the worksite. Machinery and equipment are designed to make work easier, more efficient, and can generate great amounts of power and speed. This is really handy when there is a job to be done, but this also means there is a greater potential for harm and injury. When there is a potential for harm, especially in the workplace, it needs to be managed to prevent incidents or injuries. A great place to start is by identifying the hazards and risks involved with the machinery and equipment being used so that you can put controls in place to effectively manage them.

Hazards & Risks
Many pieces of machinery and equipment use force and motion to cut, bend, join or shape materials. This force and motion can harm workers in many different ways such as crushing, cutting, puncturing and burning.

It is good practice to identify the risks to workers’ safety. When machinery and equipment is identified as a hazard in the workplace, the next required step is to manage the hazard. Begin by assessing the risks that these hazards pose to workers. A risk assessment in relation to the machinery and equipment can be completed in the HazardCo app to record hazards and the controls put in place to manage these risks. Any machinery or equipment that is faulty or damaged should be tagged out and repaired.

It is also good practice to complete Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for your machinery and equipment. The SOP should document instructions on the safe operation and maintenance of and training for any machinery or equipment. Ensure that the SOP is created using the manufacturer’s instructions so that it is specific to the machinery and equipment used.

Pre-Start Checks
Machinery and equipment are often used in harsh working environments, and on a daily basis. These two factors mean that eventually machinery and equipment can become faulty, damaged or break down over-time. If and when this happens, it can pose a risk to the workers who are using or working closely to the machinery or equipment. It is good practice to manage these risks by doing daily pre-start checks before beginning work. This ensures that the machinery and equipment are inspected and are in good working order before beginning the works. These pre-start checks should be recorded and the records should be kept.

Training
Workers should be trained to competently complete the work they are required to do. This is especially important when using machinery and equipment as there is an increased potential for harm when it is not used correctly. Make sure that workers have the appropriate training, supervision and qualification (if required) to safely use the necessary machinery and equipment. Keep an up-to-date register of what machinery and equipment workers are trained on and competent in using.

If you need a hand with managing the hazards and risks involved with using machinery and equipment, give HazardCo a call on 1800 954 702

Hi-Vis is a form of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) designed to make workers more visible to others in order to minimise the risk of injury.

The Australian legislation has Hi-Vis standards around the criteria, types and when it is to be worn.

Every construction site must have:

Hi-Vis policy or rules
Guide on how to wear and fit correctly
Training on its effectiveness and better options for risk control.

As a business owner, you must manage the risks associated with your workplace activities and in doing so follow a process to control those risks. If you cannot eliminate a risk, you must implement measures to reduce the level of risk, provide training to workers, and provide PPE – which includes hi-vis.

Protective clothing is one of many control measures used to mitigate risk, however, it is the ‘last line of defense’, and all other reasonably practicable control measures should be in place first before relying on protective clothing. It is up to the PCBU if hi-vis clothing is a control that will be implemented on-site. However, it should always be worn around moving vehicles, plant and machinery.

Types of Hi-Vis
There are many types of hi-vis clothing available in Australia, and it is important to understand the different types of hi-vis, what is appropriate for your workplace, and ensure that you supply hi-vis that meets the standards. The two hi-vis colours that meet the standard for daytime visibility are yellow and orange.

Class D – (Daytime use) made from fluorescent or other high visibility materials, are designed for daytime use. They are intended only for use in workplaces where lighting levels are good, and no work is done outside of daylight hours.
Class N – (Nighttime use) designed and only suitable for night use, with no background material specified. The reflective tape must meet certain measurements and configurations.
Class D/N – (Day and nighttime use) These garments combine fluorescent or other high-visibility background materials with strips of reflective tape, making them suitable for day and night use, or for work areas where there are low light levels.

Maintaining Hi-Vis
It is important that the correct hi-vis is selected and used correctly. Your workers should know:

When using hi-vis is required
How to wear it correctly, and that the zippers/velcro need to be done up securely
Be of a suitable fit and not interfere with normal movement
Be compatible with any other PPE requirements
Know when to request a replacement due to damage/wear and tear

Hi-vis should be maintained to ensure that it remains effective, over time the materials can fade which will affect the performance of the tape and fabric. It should be regularly checked for wear and tear, fading, and ensure that there are no additional fabrics, logos, or pockets impacting the functionality of the hi-vis in accordance with the standards AS/NZS 4602 and AS/NZS 1906.4.

HazardCo was created by tradies, for tradies. We understand that on-site risks change, all day, every day, and have experienced what happens when they aren’t well managed first hand. So we formed HazardCo to help tradies get their health and safety sorted – and help you to feel confident that you’re doing the right thing.

HazardCo’s digital health and safety solution uses everyday technology to help you complete all your health and safety requirements – all from your back pocket. Plus, HazardCo helps you to cut back on paperwork and saves you time by using straightforward templates and reports, which are full of tips and suggestions to give you the confidence you have it all covered.

You can use the HazardCo App on your smartphone to create a SWMS, Toolbox Meeting, Site Review, Risk Assessment, Incident Report, Vehicle Checklist, and more. The app is packed with simple-to-use tools that guide you through each of these activities, making them super quick and easy to complete. The HazardCo App enables our members to feel confident that they are on top of their health and safety from anywhere, at any time – whether they’re on-site, taking a coffee break, or even at home after a long day at work.

HazardCo takes the hassle out of getting your team on board because the app is free to download for everyone on-site; this includes subbies, your team, and also visitors to your site. This means that at the site scan-in board all they need to do is use the app or your camera to scan the QR code when they sign in and out which gives you the visibility of knowing who has been on-site and when without having to be there in person. Plus, there’s no need for loads of paperwork and meetings the first time someone arrives on-site – all they need to do is scan in and complete their induction on their smartphone. It’s simple, smart, and time-saving while also giving you the confidence of knowing you have your bases covered.

Along with the app, being a HazardCo member also gives you access to the HazardCo Hub – our digital tool for setting up new projects. All of the information you need is stored online meaning that you can login from anywhere, at any time. Plus, you can use the hub to view, download, and review activity reports, including site reviews, risk assessments, and inductions.

Good health and safety practices are about more than just following the rules; they’re about doing the right thing to keep you and your team safe. HazardCo’s smart digital tools save you time and paperwork, giving you the confidence that you’re doing everything you can to keep your team safe.