OHS Newsletter March 2001

OH&S Accident/Incident Summary Statistics

During the 4th quarter of 2000 there were 37 accidents and incidents reported to the Occupational Health and Safety Unit.

Accident/Incident statistics&endash;4th Quarter 00

Of the 26 accidents/incidents reported by staff members in this quarter, 12 resulted in workers compensation claims.

Total staff accidents/incidents 1999/2000

Accident/Incident statistics by Cost Centre over a 4 year period

Workers Compensation Costs over a 4 year period

Accidents/Incidents by month for 2000

Comparison of staff accidents/incidents for 4th quarter of year over a 4 year period

Mechanism of Accident/Incident in each Major Cost Centre during the 4th quarter of 2000

Cost Centre Workers Compensation costs for 4th Quarter

Tell your new staff about Safety

Workplace Services (previously the Department of Labour) has recently informed the University that records must be kept of work site specific OH&S induction for new staff.

In addition to the University Induction that covers general OH&S matters, supervisors are required to inform all new staff of health and safety issues pertinent to their area of employment. It is expected that all areas currently cover the basic issues of fire safety, building evacuation procedures, first aid and procedures for reporting health and safety hazards during the first day of a new staff members' employment.

For both academic and general staff additional site specific matters may include, for instance, the importance of interspersing sustained keyboard work with other duties, and safe procedures for lifting and carrying. The latter issue applies to staff from areas as diverse as the Libraries, Maintenance, Services, and academic staff who move heavy books or handouts.

Both the supervisor and staff member must sign and date a document listing the topics that have been covered.

In general, areas with more "obvious" hazards - such as chemical, electrical and biological hazards - routinely provide detailed site specific OH&S Inductions, but they may not all keep records of the Inductions.

The OH&S Unit can provide further advice.

Health and Safety Audits

WorkCover requires that employers undertake internal audits of health and safety matters, as an integral part of the system for managing health and safety.

Over twenty major hazards have been identified - management of those hazards must be audited. In addition, several elements of the OH&S management system itself must be audited.

In consultation with various areas, specific Action Plans are being drafted by the OH&S Unit for each of the hazards. For instance, the Laser Safety Action Plan has been drafted by consultation between the Laser Safety Officer and the OH&S Unit.

Each Action Plan provides a framework for management of the hazard it relates to, and it also provides goals and timeframes to audit against. The auditors will also take into account any relevant Policies and Procedures when they carry out the audit.

Each Cost Centre OH&S Committee will use the specific Action Plans relevant to their work - so the areas with more hazards will have more Action Plans and undergo more audits.

Hazardous Substances Audit

All Faculties, the Libraries and Central Administration underwent a Hazardous Substances audit in December last year. Results are being collated at present, but have not been finalised as a key staff member from one of the audit teams has been on leave until recently.

Thus far the results show that hazardous substances are managed well at the University and there are no major health or safety issues. The audit has revealed difficulties in some areas with implementing all of the requirements of the Hazardous Substances Policy and those difficulties will be addressed across the course of this year.

Beginners Tai Chi (Shibashi)

These classes have started for the year and both Shibashi 1 and Shibashi 2 are well attended.

Shibashi 1 is a very gentle introduction to exercise. It involves warm ups, stretching and gradually learning a set of 18 structured movements. Two new exercises are learnt each week, so by the end of nine weeks there are fewer warm ups and stretches and class time involves practicing the entire set of movements that constitute Shibashi 1. Shibashi 2 involves learning another set of 18 movements and is more aerobic than Shibashi 1. We hope to offer these again next Term.