Occupational Health & Safety

Occupational Health & Safety 

Occupational Health and Safety has become paramount for all businesses in NSW regardless of their size.

NSW OH&S legislation is one of the most onerous requirements for employers, exceeding safety standards in every other jurisdiction. The requirement for employers to guarantee the safety of their employees makes for a difficult task, especially for employers with limited resources and a lack of expertise.

NECA NSW has developed a number of strategies and tools to assist members to meet their legislative requirements. Limited resources, high penalties imposed on employers for a breach of the legislation, a strict liability regime and NECA's vast knowledge in the field make membership to NECA a must for all electrical contracting companies in NSW.

NECA provides a wealth of support to its members pertaining to Occupational Health and Safety by means of professional advice and assistance to help electrical contractors to not only meet their legislative requirements but to assist in the implementation of authentic health and safety solutions.

Workers' Compensation

If an incident occurs at your workplace, do your systems adequately address the need to coordinate the various parties and other complexities? You should see OH&S management as the preventative side of the coin with injury management systems on the flip side. And you will need both systems to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Effective injury management forms a crucial element of the OH&S management system. Essentially, it needs to come under the same risk management framework as the OH&S system, and be given equal weight with the prevention side. This closes the loop and assists with ongoing injury prevention and system improvements by enabling trend analysis and other tools that help with prioritising risk management.

NECA also provides substantial advice and assistance to members regarding workers' compensation from policy, premium calculation and claims management to crucial pro-active solutions and strategies for successful injury management and return to work outcomes.

 NECASafe OH&S Management System

In a diverse and dynamic industry such as the electrical contracting industry, the task of Occupational Health and Safety Management System implementation can have an overwhelming impact on business. NECA NSW has recognised this issue and has risen to the task of compiling a management system applicable to the electrical industry for implementation of its members.

All employers, whether in large, medium or small business enterprises, and self-employed persons, are required to demonstrate a commitment to the health, safety and welfare of all employees and other persons who operate in areas under their control. For some minor works or contracts, sub-contracts and single jobs, a Safe Work Method Statement may be sufficient but the degree of application of these procedures needs to be commensurate with the nature of the employer's enterprise, the organisational structure, type of operations and levels of risks with the work.

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NECA Safety Guide for Employees in the Electrical, Communications and Data Industries Handbook

The NECA Safety Guide Handbook (Red Book) is a pocket-sized publication offering advice and guidance in the form of rules to be followed to prevent workplace accidents and injuries. It is not intended to be a fully comprehensive OH&S Manual of safe working practices but as a guide to assist employees in achieving better safety outcomes for industry. Also, this publication is a rather useful cross-reference tool that supports our draft safe work method statements.

It is recommended that each employee be issued with a handbook during the company induction process to help re-enforce the company's commitment to safety as well as outline the expectation of its employees. Furthermore, there is provision in the handbook for sign-off by employees to indicate their commitment and understanding of the rules.

Sample Safe Work Method Statements

The NECA Safety Committee has developed a number of sample Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS) for construction for some of the common tasks undertaken by electrical contractors. These sample documents meet the legislative requirements for safe work method statements as per the defenition outlined in the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001.

These draft SWMSs are required to be edited into organisation-specific formats. The intention is that only the job and site details should need to be changed once all stakeholders agree with the format and details provided. These documents can also be modified to become a company's safe system of work for undertaking service work although a risk assessment should be conducted prior to the use of the SWMS to confirm its suitability to perform the task.

The SWMSs are to be read in conjunction with the NECA Safety Guide for Employees in the Electrical, Communications and Data Industries Handbook along with the relevant State Legislation, Codes of Practice and Australian Standards.