2015 Work Safety Awards Finalists

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WorkSafe congratulates the winners of the prestigious 2015 Work Safety Awards Western Australia announced at the Work Safety Awards Breakfast on 30 October 2015.  These awards recognise outstanding occupational safety and health management, solutions and innovation in Western Australian workplaces that reduce the risk of work-related injury and disease.

The 2015 winners are:

  • Gateway WA Perth Airport and Freight Access Project for the best workplace safety and health management system 
  • DM Civil for the best solution to an identified workplace safety and health issue
  • Excel Robotics for the best safety practices in small business
  • Brett Chisholm, Submarine Maintenance Technician, Raytheon Australia for the best individual contribution to safety and health by an employee with no formal OSH responsibilities
  • Lloyd Needham, Kalgoorlie Branch Manager, COR Cooling Pty Ltd for the best individual contribution to safety and health by an OSH Manager or person with formal OSH responsibilities

Under the category heading below you can learn more about the winners' and finalists' achievements in safety and health.

Category 1 Best workplace safety and health management system

Winner:  Gateway WA Perth Airport and Freight Access Project

The project, being delivered by an alliance of industry contractors including Main Roads WA, aims to provide road upgrades for the safety and efficiency of one of the State’s most important transport hubs – the network surrounding Perth Airport.

The project is divided into three geographical zones, with each zone having a dedicated project team and safety coordinator who continually assess systems and operations for risks to ensure control measures are in place and that no new hazards are introduced.

Finalists:

Cater Care Group

Cater Care is a catering and facilities services provider for mine workers, school children and aged care residents. The company operates more than 100 sites across Australia, with 16 of those in WA.

Two years ago Cater Care undertook a major review of its safety and wellbeing strategy. The improved Safety Health Environment Management System was fully integrated into all operations and customised to each site.

This resulted in a reduction in injuries, a complete change of culture and engagement from ‘the shop floor’ to the executive team and a company vision – ‘empowered safe and well'

DM Civil

DM Civil is a Perth-based civil contractor founded in 1976, involved in medium-to-large scale development projects across Western Australia.

DM Civil recognises safety as an integral part of its operations and has recently established three core principles: Diverse, Motivated and Committed.

The company continually works to improve safety performance, with all employees encouraged to be actively involved in contributing to its safety culture and practices. 

Leighton

Leighton Contractors, in conjunction with its subsidiary Broad Construction Services, is completing the Elizabeth Quay inlet and public space development works for the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority.

The company’s safety and health management system mandates the use of engineering and ‘above the line’ controls for critical safety risk activities, applying a hierarchy of controls to minimise or eliminate exposure to hazards.

On 1 December 2014, Leighton Contractors achieved a remarkable 12 months of construction at Elizabeth Quay without sustaining a recordable injury.

St John of God Bunbury Hospital

St John of God Bunbury Hospital offers health care services to the South-West Community of Western Australia.  Over the past two years, the hospital undertook a significant review of its safety and health management system.

The system has been aligned to achieve better work practices through a process of continuous consultation and communication, targeted improvements, external and internal benchmarking and auditing.

WorkPac Pty Ltd

Established in 1997, WorkPac is a labour provider to the mining, construction, engineering, oil and gas and health care industries.

Managing a significant labour workforce on projects across Australia, coupled with the high safety risk nature of industries in which the company operates, called for a dynamic and practical safety management system that could assess and respond to safety risks quickly and effectively.

With the objective of ‘zero harm’, MaxSafe was developed to provide a framework of safety protocols, policies, standards, guidelines and procedures that could be applied across all sites where WorkPac has employees.

Category 2 Best Solution to an Identified Workplace Safety and Health Issue

Winner:  DM Civil

DM Civil’s fabrication shop engineered a custom-designed kibble bucket that can be attached or detached from a loader without the operator having to leave the cab, lessening the risk of manual task, pinch point and collision injuries and slips, trips and falls.

Loaders are used to transport construction material such as bluemetal from stockpiles to the work area using a detachable kibble bucket, and prior to this solution, workers had to manually connect and disconnect the buckets using chains.

Finalists:

McConnell Dowell Constructors Pty Ltd – Development of an off-site prefabrication ‘cricket stump’ configuration with three piles attached to the headstock reducing the risk of injury and exposure of employees to hazards.

Construction of a 3.6 kilometre overland conveyor adjacent to Port Hedland’s road and rail access involved extensive piling works to build the platform for the conveyor. Working at height near live heavy vehicle and rail traffic posed a high safety risk for both workers and the general public.

The solution involved the off-site prefabrication of the three piles with the headstock attached – the ‘cricket stump’ method.

Assembly of stumps on the ground, including installation of stools and packing pads, meant the majority of welding and painting was carried out at ground level.

The three piles were then installed in a single lift with just one infrastructure shutdown, reducing the risk to workers by minimising working at height and the use of Elevated Work Platforms and cranes.

RACWA Holdings Pty Ltd – A risk assessment process that identified specialised equipment and training to reduce the risk of manual task injuries to workers at RAC auto service sites.

Manual handling is a major cause of injury in Auto Services.

Physiotherapists from Biosymm were engaged to complete a manual handling risk assessment across the nine auto service sites, focusing on high risk tasks and in consultation with health and safety representatives.

The project’s outcome recommended controls such as equipment purchase and specialised training. Tyre lifters, wheel holders, a topside creeper and a transmission jack were trialled at one site, along with training for team leaders and technicians.

Positive feedback from the team resulted in equipment and training being rolled out across all sites. Since then, there has been no further injury from these tasks.

Shire of Woodanilling – An additional locking device combined with safe work procedures to reduce the risk of injury to employees working on grader saddles and blades.

In the Great Southern region of WA, an incident previously occurred where a grader operator received fatal injuries while working on the blade assembly of a road grader.

Local Government grader operators are typically in a ‘working alone’ situation and could be many kilometres from help. Operators regularly need to change or maintain cutting edges on their machines where there is a risk of injury if the saddle locking device is not fully engaged on a tilted unit.

Shire staff worked together to create an additional safety feature – a secondary locking pin device designed to protect workers from unplanned movement of the tilted grader saddle while working on the blade.

Transmin Pty Ltd – An automated remote control system eliminating the risk of injury to operators of hydraulic rock breaking equipment.

Transmin management worked with employees and engineers to develop 'RockLogic', an automated remote-controlled rock breaker system.

The standard rock breaker requires workers to be close to the operation, exposing them to serious risk of injury and often harsh climate conditions.

RockLogic enables rock breakers to be controlled remotely from operation centres thousands of kilometres away from the danger zone. This has not only removed the physical risk to workers operating rock breakers, but has also eliminated the need for workers to fly in and fly out to remote mine sites.

Category 3 Best Workplace Safety and Health Practices in Small Business

Winner:  Excel Robotics

Excel offers robotic and manual welding services and component manufacture and fabrication for a range of industries in the mining and agricultural sectors, and encourages everyone in the company to take responsibility for safety.

Excel Robotics has also implemented safety initiatives such as various OSH management policies, hazard identification and risk assessment and strict housekeeping measures.

Finalists:

CATA

Incorporated in 1984, CATA provides community-based art activities, skills development and services to people living with a disability.

Wood working is just one example where the opportunity to use a variety of workshop machinery and tools is provided. Individuals must learn to operate machinery safely and with heightened awareness of specific hazards.

To enhance the induction process prior to equipment being used, CATA produced a series of five web compatible DVDs with safety knowledge and basic safety instructions for the operation of a bandsaw, router, drill press, table saw and wood lathe. 

Complete Film Solutions

Complete Film Solutions is a family-owned small business specialising in window tint, glazing film, graphics and signage for domestic and commercial premises.

In 2005 when the business was established, much of the work was done using standard single or double-sided ladders.

During the past 10 years an increased safety focus has seen the use of safer options such as platform ladders, mobile scaffold, work platforms and scissor lifts.

Category 4a Best Individual Contribution to Workplace Safety and Health : No formal OSH responsibilities

Winner:  Brett Chisholm, Submarine Maintenance Technician, Raytheon Australia

Brett performs regular and ad hoc maintenance work on submarines and is a Safety and Health Representative.

During the recent urgent removal of damaged and contaminated equipment from a submarine, concerns were raised about safety during the removal. Brett coordinated consultation during and after the operation, identified the safety issues and assisted management with implementing strategies to address them.

Finalists:

Dean Adams (Glidepath Australia Pty Ltd)

Dean started work as the Airport Service Manager with Glidepath during the installation of its new 24-hour-a-day, 365-days-a-year baggage handling system at the new Perth Airport Terminal 2 in 2012.

Dean created a standardised online safety management system where all documentation is stored and available to Glidepath employees and contractors from any location in the world.

Dean researched OHS standards and consulted with site managers from across the world to develop new company safety policies and procedures to incorporate into the online system. He continuously updates the material so the company always has the latest safety information readily available.

Murray Pich (DM Civil)

Murray is responsible for managing, maintaining and servicing DM Civil’s heavy plant and machinery. He works with engineers to design and fabricate innovative safety improvements to the company’s equipment.

Prior to utilisation on site, Murray conducts extensive field and non-destructive testing with the initial consultation team to ensure optimum results are achieved with regard to employee safety. One example of Murray’s ideas is the front end loader kibble bucket.

Category 4b Best Individual Contribution to Workplace Safety and Health : OSH Manager/OSH responsibilities

Winner:  Lloyd Needham, Kalgoorlie Branch Manager, COR Cooling Pty Ltd

Lloyd manages the company’s Kalgoorlie branch which services, repairs and manufactures all types of cooling systems for a range of industries including mining, marine and transport.

During the past 18 months, Lloyd has overseen the introduction of safety programs such as Cultural Change, Safe Behaviour and e-learning, and under his leadership the Kalgoorlie branch has achieved an outstanding record of seven years without a lost time injury.

 

 

 

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