Health and safety issues arise from a worker raising concern about health and safety at the workplace and that concern remains unresolved after consultation with the worker/s and the PCBU (Employer), it then becomes a health and safety issue.
For example, an issue could include a difference in opinion on whether something is a potential risk to health and safety, or whether a particular control measure is acceptable.
There are issue resolution requirements in Health and Safety legislation that outlines how a health and safety issue should be resolved, with the aim to agree on how to fix the problem, as soon as possible, to avoid further dispute or a similar future issue. If after reasonable efforts the issue cannot be resolved, then it can be referred to the regulator (WorkSafe) by completing the ‘Request Assistance to Resolve a Work Health and Safety Matter’ form available on their website.
The following details need to be taken into account when assessing the severity (risk level) of the issue, and from there deciding who needs to be involved:
An agreed H&S Issue Resolution Procedure is a process or steps for resolving health and safety issues in the workplace which has been agreed upon by directors / management / workers.
You can establish an agreed procedure for a workplace. To do this, make sure the procedure contains:
It is recommended to have a procedure in place in the event of an issue arising, or the steps provided in legislation can be followed.
Once the relevant people have been made aware of the details of the issue and the level of risk has been assessed, health and safety regulations set out the default procedure for resolving it.
Multiple people can be involved in the issue resolution process, depending on the risk of the issue, to ensure adequate consultation and the best outcome occurs. This means it could be:
If you or your worker would like to involve representatives in the issue resolution process you are able to do so. A representative does not necessarily need to have health and safety expertise. This could include people such as a designer of a piece of equipment at the workplace, or a person with workplace consultation and negotiation skills. Depending on the nature of the H&S issue, advice or assistance from a range of experts may be required to reach an appropriate and informed resolution between the involved parties.
Things to remember:
When the issue has been resolved, details of the issue and the resolution should be set out in a written agreement. If a written agreement is prepared:
If you’ve got a question about Health and Safety issue resolution or any other health and safety matter, the HazardCo Advisory Team is here to help. Give us a call on 0800 555 339.
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.
If you have any questions as always get in touch with the HazardCo Team
Have you been asked to complete an external prequalification and you’re scrambling for all the information that you need to get through it?
Going through a pre-qualification process helps to determine how well contractors manage health and safety. It asks businesses to demonstrate an effective health and safety management system and for information on managing specific risks.
You can also use pre-qualification as an opportunity to assist and support businesses to improve their health and safety practices.
To successfully complete a pre-qualification it is important that you have an active health and safety system. This includes evidence to show that your health and safety system is working effectively.
You only need to complete a pre-qualification if you have been asked to. You don’t need to complete a pre-qualification from an external provider unless you have been requested to, this process can easily be managed internally.
Our Advisory Team can step you through the typical questions you would see in an external pre-qualification and advise you on how the HazardCo system can support your application. E.g managing inductions on site, communicating with your workers, how to complete risk management. If you’re keen to access these resources or need assistance with completing a pre-qualification, give us a call on 0800 555 339 or e-mail advisory@hazardco.com
If you need help preparing for a pre-qualification, we can offer this through HazardCo Services in addition to your membership. We can arrange to carry out a review of your health and safety system and provide advice on areas for improvement, prior to you having to complete a pre-qualification.
We can also provide in-house support to help you complete the pre-qualification, or review your pre-qualification before it is submitted and provide recommendations to assist your application.
If you are interested in learning more about HazardCo Services you can give us a call on 0800 555 339.
When we hear the term “red flags” it means there’s a problem, it is a warning sign that something isn’t right when it comes to a particular situation. In the way of a construction site, this could be anything from a messy site, to using out of date H&S paperwork.
Some red flags are more visible or obvious than others, however it’s important to eliminate red flags on your site as they can cause injuries and other issues for you and your crew. We’ve covered some of the most common red flags and how to remove these from your site.
Not having a fence around the site perimeter could invite unauthorised entry. If your site isn’t secure, members of the public or children can enter the site, which could lead to injuries, property damage or stolen items.
Easy, ensure your site has adequate fencing set-up around the perimeter to prevent unauthorised entry. Take into consideration the height and ensure it’s not only high enough, but also check that the gap at the bottom isn’t too big where people, including children, could squeeze through underneath.
A messy site can lead to all sorts of problems. Waste and other objects left lying around can create obstacles for you and your crew. The mess could cause slip and trip injuries which can result in workers needing time off work, something you want to avoid!
Make sure your team is regularly cleaning up after themselves. Waste materials like cardboard, general rubbish and other lighter material can be placed/stored in such a way to eliminate tripping hazards and prevent them from flying off site, especially during strong winds.
Having a skip or bins available and ensuring everyone takes a moment to keep the site clear will reduce the risk of injury for everyone.
The site sign provides all of the important details including an after hours contact number.
If something happens on-site and the principal contractor needs to be contacted, it needs to be easy for anyone to find.
Display a Principal Contractor sign in a visible location which includes the following
information:
If there is no process for identifying the hazards, assessing the risks and what controls are required for a task, it could pose a significant risk to workers on-site.
A Task Analysis (TA) is required for all high risk construction work. Ensure a TA is accessible to the workers performing the task and that they are familiar with its contents.
It’s important that a TA is regularly reviewed. If the TA is not being followed due to a variation of work or conditions have changed, then work must stop until the TA is reviewed and updated.
When people are unaware of incidents or near misses occurring on site, it could lead to the same incident unnecessarily injuring people repeatedly. Also, some incidents legally need to be notified to WorkSafe. A fine can be issued if this does not occur.
Reporting injuries is also important when it comes to making sure the worker receives appropriate treatment, (e.g. medical treatment) and other support, (e.g. return to work).
When incidents, near misses, injuries and illnesses occur on-site it’s important they are reported and investigated appropriately. By recording an incident via the HazardCo App, it automatically populates an incident register on your Hub so that all the incidents are recorded in one central location.
Carrying out investigations is important as they look at why the incident occurred and what controls can be implemented to prevent them from occurring again.
H&S paperwork needs to be kept up to date to help keep your workers safe. If yours is out of date, it could contribute to an incident on-site.
Additionally, lack of H&S documentation (e.g. Risk assessment/Task Analysis) could mean you’re not complying with Legislation so you could be liable for certain prosecutions and/or fines.
If you’re old school and don’t mind filling out H&S paperwork by hand, make sure you are using something that is current, e.g. the TA is specific for the high risk task.
If you’re like us and love using a digital system, use the HazardCo App to get your H&S done quickly and simply. All of our features including the TA and site review are regularly reviewed and kept up to date, including when legislation changes.
Most cement, lime, mortar, concrete, and plaster products are hazardous substances that contain strong alkalis.
As seen in the image above, alkalis are on the opposite end of the PH scale from acids, however, can be equally as dangerous, being extremely destructive to your eyes. The way you handle the first seconds, minutes, and hours after you get the dry powder or wet mix in your eyes, will determine the outcome.
Alkalis may start their damaging work in your eye without much pain or symptoms, but over time the damage gets worse. So beware, follow the first aid steps below even if you don’t feel pain.
Don’t become one of the statistics: in 2021, there were 56 burn injury claims to the eyes in the NZ construction sector, with 90% of chemical eye burn injuries that could have been prevented.
Every second counts! Run to the closest tap, eye wash station or water bottle and start flushing your eye. You are aiming to dilute the alkali to lessen the damage.
Wash your face and hands, you don’t want to get more cement product in your eyes. Flush your eye with a steady stream of running water. Let it pour into your eye while lifting both eyelids to rinse out all the cement granules underneath. Do not reuse the water and do not let contaminated water run into the unaffected eye.
If you do not flush your eye, or stop before you are told to do so, you may suffer from permanent eye damage, dry eyes, vision loss and more.
HazardCo’s Site Box or Emergency Box is ideal for storing your SDS files and eye wash stations on-site. You can also upload and store your SDS and other H&S documents on the HazardCo Hub to keep them all in one place.
If you have an incident where someone gets cement/concrete in their eye, remember to report this as an incident in the HazardCo App. This will automatically be added to your incident register in the HazardCo Hub, and the Advisory team will be in touch with you to discuss next steps if it is deemed to be notifiable to WorkSafe NZ.
For questions or support, contact the friendly advisory team at HazardCo at 0800 555 3339 or info@hazardco.com.
We are excited to announce our partnership with Acuite, a construction-specific reporting and analytics platform, to help small and medium-sized building companies to get on top of their health and safety.
This strategic partnership will deliver powerful new Dashboards, powered by Acuite to HazardCo members, giving them the tools to track health and safety activity and improve safety outcomes.
With so much to keep track of on-site, Dashboards are a practical way for HazardCo members to understand what health and safety activity is taking place across their business and at each project site. Often the business owner or admin staff are based in an office or moving between multiple sites. They want to be able to see at a glance what health and safety activity is taking place, view trends over time, and discover how to improve.
David Speight, Co-Founder, and CEO of Acuite Construction Intelligence says, “the Acuite founders are builders and we know it’s not easy. Through combining forces with HazardCo, we feel we can make a real difference by not only making sites safer but also improving the lives of builders through arming them with the knowledge to put them on the front foot of their projects”
Following the integration, HazardCo members can get real-time insights into key health and safety activities happening on their sites through Dashboards. These Dashboards help users to understand the areas that are performing well, and those in need of improvement in a simple and easy-to-understand way.
Iain Dixon, Chief Executive Officer at HazardCo says “We are excited to be working with Acuite because they are the best in the business for reporting, analytics, and insights. Like HazardCo, they specialise in construction, they come from the industry and keep things simple. We’ve had a great response from our members already with feedback that they are loving the quick snapshot they can get from viewing their Dashboards, and being able to see at a glance what health and safety activity is happening or not happening”.
Acuite is a reporting and analytics platform. As builders themselves, their mission is to improve the lives of those in construction by creating holistic data-driven insights as well as arming them with the knowledge, time, and transparency to make better decisions.
It’s important to have the right kind of insurance in place to manage risks and keep your business moving if anything goes wrong, especially if you work in construction and trades and you’re footing the bill if it all goes belly up. Contract works insurance will ensure your construction project is protected from start to completion.
Contract works insurance covers your project during the construction stage and protects you from accidental loss or damage due to fire, flood, storm, vandalism, or theft during the build.
What is contract works insurance?
Contract Works insurance is designed to cover accidental and sudden physical loss or damage to the project that is insured during the construction stage.
When you work in the trade industry, your tools are your lifeline. If anything goes missing, you need it replaced. Depending on your policy, this could also include the cost of the labour, materials and tools required in order to get the job back on track.
What could a Contracts Works policy cover?
Who is responsible for arranging cover?
For new builds, contract works is required and the builder or construction company usually arranges this cover. However, If renovations or alterations are being done to an existing structure, the responsibility will fall on the owner.
There are two main types of Contract Works policies. Depending on your situation, you may want a one-off contract and look at this project by project, or an annual policy for someone who regularly builds new homes.
Who needs this?
As a business owner, the key to success is minimising any potential risks for your company.
Why do you need contract works insurance?
If any one of the below happened to you, it’s important you have Contract Works in place to keep you covered.
To protect from vandalism and theft
A construction company was vandalised by a digger that was on-site and was facing a total rebuild of over $200,000 after someone demolished a house during the night. Check out the article here.
To protect from natural disasters
If there is a natural disaster such as a fire, earthquake, flood and water damage, subsidence and landslip, storm, tsunami or wind. Contract Works insurance puts your mind at ease by keeping you covered.
To protect building materials and tools being sent to your building site
If any equipment that’s being sent to your site gets damaged, lost or delayed then contract works insurance can help.
To protect from accidental damage while work is being carried out
This could cover an accidental nail through a water pipe, causing internal flooding or roof trusses collapsing after a load-bearing wall was removed.
We want to help you protect your crew and your business. That’s why we’ve partnered with Cactus Insurance to make it super easy to protect your site from start to finish.
Cactus are just like us, created by tradies for tradies to make insurance simple. They offer straightforward policies with everything you need and nothing you don’t.
Noise is a very common risk across many different types of worksites. One of the most common sources of loud noise is machinery and equipment.
Machinery and equipment operate at high speeds and generate a great force that can generate significant noise. In certain worksites, this noise can be at increased volumes for long periods of time. Noise poses a risk to workers as it can cause long-term and irreversible damage to their hearing. Once the risk to workers hearing is identified it should be managed by either removing or minimising the risk.
It is recommended to control noise at the source. Some examples of how you can control and reduce noise are:
Hearing protection should only be used when extra protection is needed after using the above noise controls. If hearing protection is required:
Workers should be aware of the risk that exposure to excessive noise has to their hearing. Talk about managing noise during your safety meetings and keep a record of it in the HazardCo App. Make sure workers are provided with the appropriate training in the correct use, maintenance and storage of hearing protection. A Training Register template is available on the HazardCo Hub which can be downloaded and filled out.
You can view these resources below:
Is your work too noisy?
WorkSafe NZ’s Hierarchy of controls for noise video
If you have any questions about noise in the workplace, give HazardCo a call on 0800 555 339.
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.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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. A Training Register template is available on the HazardCo Hub which can be downloaded and filled out.
If you have any questions about guarding machinery and equipment, give HazardCo a call on 0800 555 339.
Machinery and equipment are used everyday 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.
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. Keep a list of the common hazards in the workplace and how they are controlled in a hazard register. A Hazard Register template available in the HazardCo Hub.
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. A few example SOP’s and a template are available in the HazardCo Hub that can be used to create SOPs for all the machinery and equipment in the workplace.
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. There are Pre-start Checklist templates available on the HazardCo Hub.
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. A Training Register template is available on the HazardCo Hub which can be downloaded and filled out.
If you need a hand with managing the hazards and risks involved with using machinery and equipment, give HazardCo a call on 0800 555 339.
