In observing cases relating to legislative safety breaches around the various jurisdictions of Australia (an example from NSW here), QRMC has noted a recurring pattern concerning job safety analyses or risk assessments. Frequently the incident which has led to prosecution might have been prevented had the risk assessment component been either properly completed and/or properly implemented.
To be successful in preventing incidents and protecting workers, JSAs/risk assessments need to fulfil three criteria. They must be:
- Specific to the task and thorough, and
- Understood by the end users, and
- Properly implemented, and
- Regularly updated.
To be specific and thorough, a JSA should not be a generic, formulaic document simply purchased or directly adopted from another job. Rather a risk assessment process should be undertaken for the actual job (and plant, if relevant) involved in order to be sure that the applicable hazards are identified. This assessment process should include consulting the workers undertaking the job.
To be properly implemented, workers need to be trained in:
- the risk assessment process (to promote hazard identification skills), and
- the job or task (this includes developing processes to ensure that new or contract workers are trained too), and
- the developed JSA/job risk assessment itself.
There also needs to be supervision and checks to ensure that the work is being conducted in accordance with the requirements of the JSA, and that it is effective.
To be regularly updated, there should be a mechanism for workers to raise concerns when situations or work conditions change, as these may prompt new hazards or result in changes to the level of the assessed workplace risks.
Also refer to our article from the May edition of Insight “Proper use of Job Safety Analysis”.
Please contact QRMC for more information.
