Workplace Health and Safety & Workers Compensation Committee ...
Workplace Health and Safety & Workers Compensation Committee MINUTES Meeting Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at 10.00am (AEST) Room 3.3, Level 3, 150 Collins Street, Melbourne
ATTENDEES Australian Chamber: Scott Barklamb (Chairperson), James Pearson, Agu Kantsler, Steve Hatzis Australian Chamber members in attendance: Owen Leslie (NECA), Phyllis Edwards (NECA), Elizabeth Greenwood (NSWBC), Rod Tresidder (MPMSAA), Phil Lovelock (The Victorian Chamber), Patrick D’Alessandri (VACC) Australian Chamber members via teleconference: Trevor Evans (AHA), Jill Allen (AFEI), David Humphrey (HIA), Anita Campbell (NFIA), David Stout (NRA), Angela Szczepanski (NRA), Scott Harris (Pharmacy Guild of Australia),
Agenda, Discussion, Issues 1. Welcome and apologies Agu Kantsler introduced himself as the new Chair of the Workplace Health and Safety & Workers Compensation Committee. He will take a different approach to WHS in that it will be more high level. We want to make it based on leadership and culture and these will be reflected in forthcoming meetings of the Committee. As a result, there will be less emphasis on Safe Work Australia issues. Everybody else introduced themselves as well to start off the meeting. 2. Building and Construction Industry Review Letter to Minister Cash From the letter Safe Work Australia sent to James, SWA has agreed to review the WHS laws into the building and construction industry. This is really a matter for noting. Our members suggested the recreation of the Construction Industry TAG to address the WHS laws governing the building and construction industry. Based on that, we want to create a Construction Group within the Chamber and our member network to meet on a periodic basis to discuss. The last review was done in 2014 with the next review this year hopefully removing the red tape in the process and emphasising accreditation. The review of 3 years ago was very broad. The review should be done by an accredited group, rather than academics. Items for action:
Ask Safe Work Australia to clarify the differences between types of construction Ask Safe Work Australia who is conducting the review. We are happy to provide input as to who should do it. Ask Safe Work Australia to recreate the Construction TAG Create an Australian Chamber Construction Working Group involving our members in that industry. Paul would coordinate these meetings.
2.2 Outcomes of Recent Out of Session Items No real issues mentioned regarding the labelling of bulk containers. SWA had sent an out of session paper to the Mesothelioma Group members on 8 February. Neither issue had a particular interest to our members since some of our building and construction members were in the BCDS (Building Construction Demolition Sector) group relating to ASEA (Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency), who in fact met last week. There is a bit of confusion regarding the labelling requirements, especially when it came to waste disposal. Items for action:
Steve Hatzis to contact Philip Hibbs our representative on the AMR (Australian Mesothelioma Register) on any issues to report and perhaps obtain the out of session paper on the AMR.
3.
Steve Hatzis to contact Chemicals Australia, Australian Veterinary Association and Medicines Australia for GHS feedback.
Qantas: Management of Health and Safety (Presentation to SWA) It will be interesting to view their presentation as Qantas has a heavily regulated environment when it comes to WHS. Some of our members are interested in receiving this presentation and we will endeavour to send it to them if we have it. Agu mentioned that there are some things that Qantas does well as far as safety goes, but not so well in others compared to the oil and gas industry. Items for action:
Ask Qantas via James as to whether that they have incentives in place for safe work behaviour. If we have a copy of the presentation, we can send it to members.
4. Safe Work Australia Draft Corporate Plan 2017-2020 and Operation Plan 2017-18 The corporate plan is very governance driven. There is no provision on the corporate plan for safety leadership and culture, and is a high level document, which means nothing to us nor to our members. The operation plan doesn’t go into any great detail either and again we could mention leadership and culture. Our members mentioned that there is too much focus on quantitative evidence, rather than quality evidence when it comes to their planning. They also mentioned that the collection of data is very important and the Safe Work Australia research doesn’t reflect well on employers. We should use the data available to show that there is an emphasis on leadership and culture, rather than overregulation. Items for action:
Ask Safe Work Australia to include leadership and culture front and centre in their plans. Company boards should take part in the process. Ask Safe Work Australia to increase qualitative evidence in their planning.
5. Engagement and Communication Framework Safe Work Australia should heed its own message and be safety driven, rather than getting bogged down in compliance. We want Safe Work Australia to be inspirational and leadership driven. If that doesn’t happen, we feel that Safe Work Australia is a limited body with limited powers. There isn’t a lot of problems with the document, but we need clarification on who the stakeholders that have been mentioned in the framework. It should be a tripartite process, not a quadpartite one. Safe Work Australia must mention who they are. James in his conversation with the Safe Work Australia chair said that she is very driven to make Safe Work Australia more relevant.
Items for action:
Ask Safe Work Australia who the stakeholders are. Is the Australian Chamber, an internal or external stakeholder? Ask Safe Work Australia for additional detail on Item 5
6. Mid Term Review of the Australian Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022 We didn’t go into great detail about this item, but we will ask Safe Work Australia some stakeholder related questions. Items for action:
Ask Safe Work Australia who the most influential stakeholders are. Ask Safe Work Australia why APPEA was not included as targeted stakeholder, as they would be a great source. Ask Safe Work Australia about the inclusion of the Australian Human Rights Institute as a stakeholder. Ask Safe Work Australia to include an organisation representing burns. Ask Safe Work Australia if they have a diversity of academic views.
7. Comparative Performance Monitoring Report 18 Safe Work Australia will publish the document pending member approval. There were 19 recommendations with 8 of them being changed. Overall, the content of the report was pretty good, and that can be used by practitioners. We shall have a look at the viability of the report. We got more information, than less in this report and the use of infographics is a great idea as long as the level of detail is not sacrificed. Western Australia wasn’t able to provide its data for use in the report.
Items for action: Ask Safe Work Australia what are the 8 recommendations that have been changed. Ask Safe Work Australia for an increased suite of data for future editions including international data. Ask Safe Work Australia if there is a benchmark against international reporting of data.
8. Evaluation Report on the National Safe Work Month and Virtual Seminar Series VSS is a great resource. The only issue among the members is notification from Safe Work Australia as to when a resource is coming out. If that is received at short notice, it doesn’t reflect well on the member. Safe Work Month in October gives the Australian Chamber an opportunity to leverage some initiatives relating to leadership and culture. Safe Work Month has normally been a program that the regulators have been involved in.
Items for action: Ask Safe Work Australia to put more leadership and culture material in the VSS. The Australian Chamber to include initiatives in leadership and culture for Safe Work Month.
9. Other Business Emerging Issue: Our members mentioned that fatalities after performing electrical work has increased. This has resulted in Western Australia enforcing a law for any electrical work to be performed, the power must be switched off first. 9.1 National Assessment Instruments Revision 3 – Change of Process This was a review of 6 groups with the 11 metre rule to be eventually removed. The verification of competencies is an issue and leads to confusion depending on what is needed. The NAIs need to be reliable and the costs should be passed on to the right people.
Items for action: Ask Safe Work Australia to put more clarity into licensing requirements.
10. User Guide for Government WSH Policy Framework This was skipped due to low/lack of interest from members. 11. Progress against the SIG Work Plans for 2017-2018 Brief discussion on this topic.
Items for action: The Australian Chamber to review this item as to where we should go with this. The Australian Chamber through Paul to talk to Jill Allen (AFEI) regarding SIG-WC work plan progress for 2016-2017, especially regarding migrant workers.
12. Chief Executive Officers Report This was for noting with the report mentioning corporate activities and the budget to meet these activities. The first 6 pages were of particular interest to us.
Meeting finished at 1.00pm.
ATTENDEES Australian Chamber: Scott Barklamb (Chairperson), James Pearson, Agu Kantsler, Steve Hatzis Australian Chamber members in attendance: Owen Leslie (NECA), Phyllis Edwards (NECA), Elizabeth Greenwood (NSWBC), Rod Tresidder (MPMSAA), Phil Lovelock (The Victorian Chamber), Patrick D’Alessandri (VACC) Australian Chamber members via teleconference: Trevor Evans (AHA), Jill Allen (AFEI), David Humphrey (HIA), Anita Campbell (NFIA), David Stout (NRA), Angela Szczepanski (NRA), Scott Harris (Pharmacy Guild of Australia),
Agenda, Discussion, Issues 1. Welcome and apologies Agu Kantsler introduced himself as the new Chair of the Workplace Health and Safety & Workers Compensation Committee. He will take a different approach to WHS in that it will be more high level. We want to make it based on leadership and culture and these will be reflected in forthcoming meetings of the Committee. As a result, there will be less emphasis on Safe Work Australia issues. Everybody else introduced themselves as well to start off the meeting. 2. Building and Construction Industry Review Letter to Minister Cash From the letter Safe Work Australia sent to James, SWA has agreed to review the WHS laws into the building and construction industry. This is really a matter for noting. Our members suggested the recreation of the Construction Industry TAG to address the WHS laws governing the building and construction industry. Based on that, we want to create a Construction Group within the Chamber and our member network to meet on a periodic basis to discuss. The last review was done in 2014 with the next review this year hopefully removing the red tape in the process and emphasising accreditation. The review of 3 years ago was very broad. The review should be done by an accredited group, rather than academics. Items for action:
Ask Safe Work Australia to clarify the differences between types of construction Ask Safe Work Australia who is conducting the review. We are happy to provide input as to who should do it. Ask Safe Work Australia to recreate the Construction TAG Create an Australian Chamber Construction Working Group involving our members in that industry. Paul would coordinate these meetings.
2.2 Outcomes of Recent Out of Session Items No real issues mentioned regarding the labelling of bulk containers. SWA had sent an out of session paper to the Mesothelioma Group members on 8 February. Neither issue had a particular interest to our members since some of our building and construction members were in the BCDS (Building Construction Demolition Sector) group relating to ASEA (Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency), who in fact met last week. There is a bit of confusion regarding the labelling requirements, especially when it came to waste disposal. Items for action:
Steve Hatzis to contact Philip Hibbs our representative on the AMR (Australian Mesothelioma Register) on any issues to report and perhaps obtain the out of session paper on the AMR.
3.
Steve Hatzis to contact Chemicals Australia, Australian Veterinary Association and Medicines Australia for GHS feedback.
Qantas: Management of Health and Safety (Presentation to SWA) It will be interesting to view their presentation as Qantas has a heavily regulated environment when it comes to WHS. Some of our members are interested in receiving this presentation and we will endeavour to send it to them if we have it. Agu mentioned that there are some things that Qantas does well as far as safety goes, but not so well in others compared to the oil and gas industry. Items for action:
Ask Qantas via James as to whether that they have incentives in place for safe work behaviour. If we have a copy of the presentation, we can send it to members.
4. Safe Work Australia Draft Corporate Plan 2017-2020 and Operation Plan 2017-18 The corporate plan is very governance driven. There is no provision on the corporate plan for safety leadership and culture, and is a high level document, which means nothing to us nor to our members. The operation plan doesn’t go into any great detail either and again we could mention leadership and culture. Our members mentioned that there is too much focus on quantitative evidence, rather than quality evidence when it comes to their planning. They also mentioned that the collection of data is very important and the Safe Work Australia research doesn’t reflect well on employers. We should use the data available to show that there is an emphasis on leadership and culture, rather than overregulation. Items for action:
Ask Safe Work Australia to include leadership and culture front and centre in their plans. Company boards should take part in the process. Ask Safe Work Australia to increase qualitative evidence in their planning.
5. Engagement and Communication Framework Safe Work Australia should heed its own message and be safety driven, rather than getting bogged down in compliance. We want Safe Work Australia to be inspirational and leadership driven. If that doesn’t happen, we feel that Safe Work Australia is a limited body with limited powers. There isn’t a lot of problems with the document, but we need clarification on who the stakeholders that have been mentioned in the framework. It should be a tripartite process, not a quadpartite one. Safe Work Australia must mention who they are. James in his conversation with the Safe Work Australia chair said that she is very driven to make Safe Work Australia more relevant.
Items for action:
Ask Safe Work Australia who the stakeholders are. Is the Australian Chamber, an internal or external stakeholder? Ask Safe Work Australia for additional detail on Item 5
6. Mid Term Review of the Australian Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022 We didn’t go into great detail about this item, but we will ask Safe Work Australia some stakeholder related questions. Items for action:
Ask Safe Work Australia who the most influential stakeholders are. Ask Safe Work Australia why APPEA was not included as targeted stakeholder, as they would be a great source. Ask Safe Work Australia about the inclusion of the Australian Human Rights Institute as a stakeholder. Ask Safe Work Australia to include an organisation representing burns. Ask Safe Work Australia if they have a diversity of academic views.
7. Comparative Performance Monitoring Report 18 Safe Work Australia will publish the document pending member approval. There were 19 recommendations with 8 of them being changed. Overall, the content of the report was pretty good, and that can be used by practitioners. We shall have a look at the viability of the report. We got more information, than less in this report and the use of infographics is a great idea as long as the level of detail is not sacrificed. Western Australia wasn’t able to provide its data for use in the report.
Items for action: Ask Safe Work Australia what are the 8 recommendations that have been changed. Ask Safe Work Australia for an increased suite of data for future editions including international data. Ask Safe Work Australia if there is a benchmark against international reporting of data.
8. Evaluation Report on the National Safe Work Month and Virtual Seminar Series VSS is a great resource. The only issue among the members is notification from Safe Work Australia as to when a resource is coming out. If that is received at short notice, it doesn’t reflect well on the member. Safe Work Month in October gives the Australian Chamber an opportunity to leverage some initiatives relating to leadership and culture. Safe Work Month has normally been a program that the regulators have been involved in.
Items for action: Ask Safe Work Australia to put more leadership and culture material in the VSS. The Australian Chamber to include initiatives in leadership and culture for Safe Work Month.
9. Other Business Emerging Issue: Our members mentioned that fatalities after performing electrical work has increased. This has resulted in Western Australia enforcing a law for any electrical work to be performed, the power must be switched off first. 9.1 National Assessment Instruments Revision 3 – Change of Process This was a review of 6 groups with the 11 metre rule to be eventually removed. The verification of competencies is an issue and leads to confusion depending on what is needed. The NAIs need to be reliable and the costs should be passed on to the right people.
Items for action: Ask Safe Work Australia to put more clarity into licensing requirements.
10. User Guide for Government WSH Policy Framework This was skipped due to low/lack of interest from members. 11. Progress against the SIG Work Plans for 2017-2018 Brief discussion on this topic.
Items for action: The Australian Chamber to review this item as to where we should go with this. The Australian Chamber through Paul to talk to Jill Allen (AFEI) regarding SIG-WC work plan progress for 2016-2017, especially regarding migrant workers.
12. Chief Executive Officers Report This was for noting with the report mentioning corporate activities and the budget to meet these activities. The first 6 pages were of particular interest to us.
Meeting finished at 1.00pm.
