University Safety Awards 2007

 

1.  The Awards

The University Safety Awards acknowledge the contributions made to occupational safety and health at the University and its affiliates by Faculties, Schools, Sections and also individuals. It also facilitates the sharing of these approaches and achievements between different work areas. 

Apart from the individual, group and group (rehabilitation) awards, Certificates of Appreciation were made to staff who have contributed in specific ways to either making the University a safer place or be having provided assistance to other staff in need.

History

This is the 9^th year that the awards have been presented on behalf of the University Safety Committee.  The 2007 awards are for activities and achievements made since 2006. 

Sponsorship

The University greatly appreciates the kind sponsorship provided for the University Safety Awards by the University Co-operative Bookshop.

Requirements

Written submissions were required by 21 September 2007.   In considering the nominations the different circumstances of the nominated areas and the extent and significance of the systems approach and safety achievements made were taken into account.

Selection Panel

The selection panel for the awards consisted of:

·        Dr Allan McKinley, Chair, University Safety Committee

·        Mr Bob Farrelly, Director, Human Resources

·        Mr Mike Rafferty, Manager, Safety and Health

·        Mr Gerald Stack, Manager, Maintenance, Facilities Management

·        Ms Averil Riley, Senior Occupational Therapist, Safety and Health

Presentation

A presentation function for the awards was held in the Prescott Room, Vice-Chancellery on Tuesday 23 October 2007. The master of ceremonies was Dr Allan McKinley and Professor Margaret Seares, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor presented the awards.

Award recipients received framed certificates and gift vouchers sponsored by the University Cooperative Bookshop. The UWA News article of the UWA Safety Awards 2007 has been issued. It's on page 13 of the 19/11/07 edition. Click here to view this newsletter.

Past Safety Award Recipients 

2.  Individual Safety Award

The Individual Safety Award is to acknowledge outstanding contributions by individual University employees in establishing and maintaining high standards of occupational safety and health activities and achievements within the University.

The contributions to workplace safety may be at a University, Faculty, School or Section level and have occurred or were maintained since 2006. Evaluation took into account the different circumstances of the work areas. 

The 2007 Individual Safety Award was presented to Ross Oxwell, Chief Technician, Physiology, School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences.  Ross received a framed certificate and gift voucher sponsored by the University Co-operative Bookshop.  Noteworthy aspects of the nomination were:

Ross Oxwell – Physiology, BBCS

• Has a very strong safety ethic and understands the University’s responsibilities to staff, students and others.
• Has served as the Physiology Building Warden for the past twenty-five years and as the Safety and Health Representative since the introduction of these roles in the 1980s.
• Attends all safety and health meetings, forums and training sessions and disseminates any new policies or requirements either informally or at the monthly staff meetings.
• Has developed many safety protocols such as for animal work, chemicals, poisons, gene technology, radioisotopes and emergency procedures.
• Ensures all equipment (electrical, autoclaves, incubators, gas cylinders, fume cupboards, biohazard hoods) are maintained, inspected and certified as required.
• Ensures all new staff and students receive the necessary specialised safety training and that they follow accepted safety standards in research and teaching laboratories.
• Always has championed safety and high work standards within Physiology.

3.  Group Rehabilitation Award

The Rehabilitation Award is to acknowledge work-areas who have demonstrated remarkable support and assistance in aiding employees with their return to work following an injury or onset of a medical condition.  It seeks to acknowledge general support, assistance and accommodation only made to fellow employees, whether on a temporary or ongoing basis.

The nominees for the 2007 Group Rehabilitation Award were:  Records Management Services within Archives and Records and the University Club.

Archives and Records

• Provide an invaluable service to the University in filing, record keeping and archiving.
• Since January 2006 they have supported a team member who sustained a work related back injury by assisting and at times taking on additional duties that the affected staff member was not able to do.
• Nomination is in recognition of the long-standing support and accommodation being provided by a team of empathetic, understanding and deserving of acknowledgement.

University Club

• Hospitality work involves a relatively high level of exposure to occupational safety and health hazards coupled with working non-standard hours, difficulty in recruiting and transient workforce.
• Over the past twelve months the Club has had four staff participating on return to work programs, each person needing more than two months on restricted duties.
• This requires management to be empathetic to the needs of the injured staff member, for supervisors to abide by recommendations for restricted duties and for work colleagues to backfill or undertake additional tasks. In a service orientated business centre, these things should not be taken for granted.
• The Club is to be congratulated for the smooth transition for all of the affected workers and the way in which it diligently follows injury management principles, allowing injured staff to recover and return back to pre-injury duties as and when they are ready to according to advice from treating medical specialists.
• Additionally, the Club has created a culture where the early reporting of injury or symptoms is encouraged, thereby early intervention can be provided, avoiding costly injuries or further aggravation.

The 2007 Group Rehabilitation Award was presented to the University Club.  The University Club received a framed certificate and gift voucher sponsored by the University Co-operative Bookshop.

4.  Group Safety Award

The Group Safety Award acknowledges best practice approaches and achievements in occupational safety and health management by Faculties, Schools or Sections.  Submissions were required to be based on criteria used by the WorkSafe Plan from WorkSafe WA. The five elements and standards used are:

·        Management Commitment – where there is commitment to achieving high standards of occupational safety and health performance through effective safety management

·        Planning – where planning is used to establish and maintain a safety management system that is set up to continuously improve occupational safety and health

·        Consultation – where there is a mechanism for consulting with employees has been developed and is working effectively

·        Hazard Management – where there is an effective system to identify hazards and assess and control risks

·        Training – where training is organised to reduce the risk of work-related injury and disease and is evaluated to ensure its effectiveness

The nominees for the 2007 Group Award were:  Facilities Management Building Services Workshop, School of Anatomy and Human Biology and the School of Human Movement and Exercise Science.  It should be noted all finalists participated in internal Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) audits conducted by Safety and Health in 2006.

Facilities Management Building Services Workshop

Noteworthy aspects of the Building Services Workshop submission included:

• Safety is widely promoted through weekly supervisor meetings, weekly staff meetings and through safety posters and information on noticeboards.
• Safe working procedures for electrical safety, working from heights and securing work sites (barricading) are regularly followed.
• Safety management plans and job safety analysis are being implemented for all work activities.
• Safety inductions of all new staff are conducted.
• Staff are encouraged to remove or report hazards they observe both within their work areas and whilst working across the campus.
• Good housekeeping occurs with daily clean ups of the workshops.
• An audit is in progress to identify the skills and safety knowledge of all staff.
• Staff are regularly updating their skills, including vertical rescue training, which was recently completed by six workshop staff.

School of Anatomy and Human Biology

Noteworthy aspects of the School of Anatomy and Human Biology submission included:

·        Strong commitment from senior management and an effective safety management plan

·        Has an active Safety Committee which meets monthly to coordinate all OSH activities within the School.  A call to the entire School for agenda items is made prior to each meeting.

·        Safety management activities are routinely followed up by the School Committee to ensure they are completed in a timely fashion.

·        In 2006 the priorities were evacuation plans, emergency procedures, chemical documentation, risk assessments of procedures, workplace inspections and the development of the Safety Plan.

·        In March each year the School holds a ‘Safety Week’ when the annual inspections are conducted and safety topics of interest discussed.

·        Consultation and buy in for the annual safety inspections is assisted by email notifications, discussion at staff meetings and getting staff to inspect areas which are not familiar to them so that they could view the workplace more critically and without prior assumptions.

·        A strong emphasis is placed on safety inductions, documented risk assessments of processes and standard operating procedures.

·        All incidents are thoroughly investigated as soon as possible.

School of Human Movement and Exercise Science

Noteworthy aspects of the School of Human Movement and Exercise Science submission included:

·        Strong commitment from senior management with safety and health issues a standing item at every School staff meeting.

·        Has a comprehensive safety website with a School Safety and Health manual, responsibility schedule, laboratory / workshop schedule, specific checklist and safety related forms.  Refer:  http://www.hmes.uwa.edu.au/Safety/safety_and_health_manual

·        All new staff and postgraduate students receive safety inductions.

·        Regular in house safety audits are conducted.

·        Rod Robison (School Manager) has been a Safety and Health Representative since 1991 (16 years) and a member of the University Safety Committee since 1999 (8 years).

·        Professor Tim Ackland has been a Senior DVC representative on the University Safety Committee since 2004 (3 years).

·        The School has lobbied and supported the funding of two automatic defibrillators, with a number of staff fully trained in the proper use of this equipment.

·        School staff regularly introduce safety innovations to reduce the risk of injury such as the design and construction of a system to lift G size gas cylinders.

The 2007 Group Safety Award was presented to the School of Anatomy and Human Biology.  The School received a framed certificate and gift voucher sponsored by the University Co-operative Bookshop

5.  Certificates of Appreciation

Certificates of Appreciation were made to five staff who have contributed in specific ways to either making the University a safer place or be having provided assistance to other staff in need. 

Mr Donald Allen, Senior Technician, Electronic Workshop, School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering.

The University has been developing an electrical equipment testing and tagging program since 2002 and in 2004 and 2005 the University Safety Committee spent over $95,000 in subsidising and supporting this program within work areas.  A new model was needed which was legally compliant, fulfilled the University’s duty of care, was evidence based and cost effective.  During 2006 and 2007 Don Allen assisted with this process.  Don’s activities on this included:

• Providing technical (electrical) advice.
• Interpreting the legal requirements and exploring other models.
• Drafting a new policy and associated guidelines.
• Investigating testing equipment and designing a new UWA tag.
• Developing a new UWA Electrical Safety brochure.
• Assisting with the implementation of this program within work areas.

The Certificate of Appreciation to Don Allen was for his valuable contributions in reviewing the testing and tagging requirements for portable electrical equipment and with the practical implementation of these within the University.

Mr Peter Hacking, Systems Administrator (FM Systems), Information Technology Services

Mr Robert Welten, Security Superintendent, Security (Security and Parking)

Mr Graham Morrison, Senior Security Officer, Security (Security and Parking)

Mr Brett Tidy, Mail Clerk, Mail Room (Administrative Services)

In February 2007 a staff member in the University’s Mail Room suffered a cardiac arrest.  Fortunately they were observed by Peter Hacking, who called Security and commenced CPR with the assistance of Brett Tidy.  Bob Welten and Graham Morrison arrived within 4 minutes of the call and provided assistance including using the defibrillator and CPR.  Their prompt actions helped save the life of the UWA staff member and we are all very grateful for their efforts.  Refer: UWA News, 16 July 2007

The Certificates of Appreciation to the team was for maintaining their First Aid skills and for their prompt response in attending to others in need of assistance.    

6.  Closing Comments

The awards are an opportunity to demonstrate high achievements in safety and health by both groups and individuals and to share these achievements with others. 

Congratulations to all nominees for either submitting or being nominated for their efforts and achievements. 

The certificates of appreciation are to staff who have contributed in specific ways to either making the University a safer place or be having provided assistance to other staff in need.

The University greatly appreciates the kind sponsorship provided for the University Safety Awards by the University Co-operative Bookshop.

October 2007 (F20052)