Reasonably practicable means

Businesses must always consider first whether they can reasonably eliminate risks. If not, they must take reasonably practicable steps to minimise risks under new health and safety laws. But what might this mean for your business?

Reasonably practical  DOESN’T mean you have to: do everything humanly possible to prevent accidents

• buy the most expensive equipment on the market
• spend the bulk of your week on H&S training, compliance, and documentation.

Reasonably practicable DOES mean you need to:

• determine what kinds of risks are caused by your work
• consider how likely those risks are
• take appropriate action that is proportionate to the injury or illness that could occur
• implement well-known and effective industry practices
• involve your staff in identifying and controlling risks.

 

The upshot is you’re expected to do what a reasonable person would do in your situation. It’s about taking responsibility for what you can control.

Reasonably practicable steps

Scenario A

Mikey manages a small drain-laying crew working on replacing a sewerage line. When he discovers the old piping looks like it contains asbestos— a well-recognized industry hazard — Mikey immediately sees the risks. He stops all work and calls a certified asbestos remover to come in and take over.

Due to the fact that asbestos risks are well known, as are the control mechanisms around its removal, Mikey has managed the risk so far as is reasonably practicable.

Scenario B

Two carpenters are removing brickwork from an old fireplace during the house renovation.  They recognise that the bricks have a high silica content and removal may cause a considerable level of dust.

Together they decide that, while they can’t eliminate the problem altogether, they can prevent the dust from dispersing through the room and other parts of the house by using a HEPA filter vacuum and regularly monitoring the area, and wearing reusable particulate filter masks. The door is closed to further minimise the spread and to keep others away.

As dust is a routine part of their day-to-day work, and the dust extraction unit is not too expensive they’ve done what is reasonably practicable.

Not reasonably practicable steps

Scenario C

Bob is a welder in an engineering shop where structural steel is welded and painted.  His issued personal protective equipment is limited to a welding helmet and gloves, and overalls.  His boss keeps the roller doors open but closes them during foul weather.  The boss considers that the roof is sufficiently high that the welding and paint fumes won’t be a problem.

Bob feels the lack of fresh air and lack of fume extraction is unhealthy for all workers and he is uncomfortable with the environment. In response, the owner tells Bob he has to keep working and the doors won’t be closed all day.    This situation would be considered not reasonably practical due to the known health harm of welding fumes and the solvent paints used to coat steel.

Scenario D

Mac’s timber supplies have customers, workers, cars towing trailers, and large trucks regularly driving in and out of the premises through a single gate. Staff are worried about accidents caused by poor traffic flow and inattentive drivers. Mac puts a large sign at the gate with a 10K speed restriction.  Mac does not wish to spend money improving the site as it is only leased, and he will get no return on any additional improvements.

This would be considered NOT reasonably practical due to the significant risk of serious injury from a vehicle versus pedestrian collision or vehicle versus vehicle collision.

 

Fit Testing The Facts

If your staff are required to wear protective respiratory masks, the simple answer is yes to ensure a well sealed fit …

1. Fit testing is a requirement of the AS/NZS standard.

2. There are two types of tests. A quantitative test measures the amount of particulates inside the mask compared with the outside the mask, while a qualitative relies on the test subject smelling or tasting a chemical while wearing the respirator.
3. You’re unlikely to pass a fit test if you have facial hair.  (see the “Life Shavers video by Worksafe” – easy google term).  Persuasive value if you need demonstrate the facts to your staff.
4. There’s an actual qualification for fit testers called “Commit2Fit”, (not to be confused with the fitness app).  You should use a competent fit tester, a person who has undergone the training  and is certified under the Australian New Zealand Standard AS/NZS1715
5. You should be fit tested annually or anytime your face shape changes (i.e., after dental work or after a significant weight change).
6. A quantitative fit test only takes around 15 minutes and gives you peace of mind for up to 12 months and helps to ensure the correct fit which means your workers are far less likely to suffer from respiratory diseases such as asthma which has become a common workplace ailment.

Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) and a  Health and Safety Committees (HSCs) are two well-established methods of representation which form part of the engagement and participation, a mandatory requirement of the HSWA.

When workers and PCBUs interact with each other honestly, openly, and with mutual respect, this reduces the risk of conflict and problems.

Having a health and safety committee or a health and safety representative can be a good way of ensuring regular safety conversations are taking place.

A Health and Safety Committee (HSC) supports the ongoing improvement of health and safety at work.

An HSC enables the Person Conducting Business or Undertaking (PCBU) representatives, workers, and other HSC members to meet regularly and work cooperatively to ensure workers’ health and safety.
One of the committee’s main functions is to assist in developing standards, rules, and policies or procedures relating to work health and safety.

A Health and Safety Committee can also perform other functions that are agreed upon between the PCBU and the HSC, or specified by the Regulations.

Benefits of a Health and Safety Committee

An HSC can draw on workers’ practical knowledge of how work is done as well as managers’ knowledge about the broader context behind company policies and procedures.
An HSC can be an efficient participation practice in a workplace that has multiple PCBUs with overlapping duties, such a construction site or university campus.

Committee members can be drawn from each PCBU.

This helps a PCBU who shares responsibility for health and safety with
other PCBUs to meet the requirement to consult, cooperate with, and coordinate activities with other PCBUs.

Health and Safety Committee (if chosen as a participation practice) will be successful when:

• HSC meets regularly.
• All workers have representation on the HSC (see workforce diversity, below).
• Workers are consulted with by the PCBU at appropriate stages (eg before new technology or equipment is chosen/introduced).
• Worker representatives have adequate time, resources, and facilities to carry out their roles.
• Workers’ views are sought by the PCBU on how changes to work or working conditions might affect workers’ health and safety.
• Workers’ views about health and safety matters are heard business-wide, not just at the local level (for multi-site businesses or undertakings)
• HSC is involved in developing standards, rules, policies, and procedures for improving work health and safety outcomes.
• HSC recommendations are given due consideration by the PCBU.
• Workers know who their representatives are on the HSC.
• Workers have enough time to have a say and participate before a decision has to be made about a work health and safety matter.

Workers should know when their participation counts. 
Workers need to know:

• that their voices have been heard
• how and when a PCBU will respond
• how, and what, decisions were made about issues and suggestions raised by workers or their representatives.

Feedback from a PCBU:

• shows how workers’ input has been considered
• is ideally shared face-to-face, although email, noticeboards, and newsletters can also work
•  is evidence of a PCBU’s commitment
• may mean explaining why something can’t be done. If workers make a suggestion but hear nothing more they may be frustrated and lose trust in the PCBU.

Related  Points

Organisations with 20 or more workers are required to have a  Health and Safety Committee if one or more workers requests a HSC to be initiated.

High-risk industries (defined in the Regulations),are required to have a health and safety representative (HSR), or consider a committee if requested by workers.

High-Risk industries are :

• Aquaculture
• Forestry and logging
• Fishing, hunting, and trapping
• Coal mining
• Food product manufacturing
• Water supply, sewerage, and drainage services
• Waste collection, treatment, and disposal services
• Building Construction

Legally the PCBU (your business) is required to provide suitable personal protective equipment, information and training to your workers when dealing with certain hazards in the workplace.  Examples of hazards include excessive noise, ultra-violet light (sun), hazardous substances (chemicals),  and radiation.

Make it a condition of their work

To remove any doubt over this matter, make the use of safety equipment and clothing a condition of employment by including a clause in the employment agreement.  Personal protective equipment includes anything used to protect against the effects of contamination or physical harm. Some typical examples:

• Clothing to cover the body (such as overalls and aprons)
• Footwear with steel caps (shoes and boots)
• Items to protect hands and feet (such as gloves and safety boots)
• Breathing protection devices (such as dust masks or air-fed or canister respirators)
• Hearing protection devices (such as earmuffs and earplugs)
• Eye safety protection (such as safety glasses and goggles)
• Head protection (such as hard hats)
• Safety harnesses and related equipment

Overcoming staff reluctance

Some staff may not want to wear safety gear; they may decide it’s unnecessary, uncomfortable, restricts their working ability or even use the excuse that it’s ugly.

Wearing safety gear should be commonsense, but commonsense is not always first and foremost in people’s minds. It’s important to remind staff they have a responsibility to protect their own health and safety and that of their work mates, particularly where safety procedures and guidelines are already in place.

Explaining to staff exactly what can happen in the case of an accident can help them understand how an apparently minor accident can change their lives forever. For example, a tiny sliver of steel flying off a cold chisel struck by a hammer can cause permanent loss of sight in a person not wearing protective goggles.

Consider using the ‘Four E’s’: Educate, Enable, Engage and Enforce to encourage employees to use safety gear and clothing. The first three are about giving employees the opportunity to participate in health and safety decisions. This also gives you an opportunity to develop relationships and show staff you have their health and safety at heart.

1. Educate

Explain to employees how hazards such as noise, dust, fumes, chemicals or heights can affect their health or safety, how the equipment protects them, and when to use it. You need to point out that the effects of many hazards are not immediate. For example, loud noise may cause hearing loss that only affects the employee years later.

2. Enable

Give them gear that’s suitable for the purpose and that fits. It’s not a matter of ‘one size fits all’ and some styles have a more acceptable ‘look’. Employees also need to be trained to use the safety gear correctly.

3. Engage

Talk with employees. Are there issues that lead to a reluctance to use the gear? Is it uncomfortable, bulky or hard to move round in? If so, what can be done about it? Did they have a choice in the selection of safety gear? People are more likely to use gear they’ve chosen. Do they consider it ‘not cool’ or not ‘manly’ to use it? If so, where does this viewpoint come from? Are you (or the supervisor) wearing it to set an example?

4. Enforce

Finally, if all else fails, explain that the law requires you to provide gear that protects employees against hazards that can’t be controlled in any other way. You’re required to make sure they use it. Ensure they understand that wearing protective gear is not an optional extra.

Remember to monitor safety practices

It’s one matter to get everyone committed to wearing safety gear. It’s another to ensure that they keep on wearing it. Over time, people can get careless, forget, or simply take dangerous shortcuts, perhaps when they’re tired or near the end of a shift.

Make it a responsibility for your managers and supervisors to check that employees always wear their safety gear. Walking around the workplace yourself from time to time is another way to check that people are complying.

Make it convenient for employees to find the gear and ensure it is kept clean and in good working order.

Where a worksite has significant hazards that could result in injury to an employee’s feet, the employer must provide suitable safety boots (or other suitable protective footwear) at no cost to the employee.

The HASANZ Register is a national, online register of verified workplace health and safety professionals.

It is a one-stop shop for businesses to find reliable, quality health and safety advice and services.

Businesses and members of the public can search for free to find providers who offer services across the whole sector.

Established in 2018   with funding provided by WorkSafe New Zealand and ACC it is managed by the Health and Safety Association of New Zealand (HASANZ).

There are varied disciplines that together makeup New Zealand’s health and safety workforce.

Each discipline has its own unique expertise, and to help guide you we’ve provided a summary below of the areas covered by our professional member associations.

How to Select a workplace health and safety consultant

Before you contact a consultant it helps to know what you want them to do. Most consultants will try and work this out when you first contact them. However, it’s important to be prepared so that there is an effective use of everyone’s time.

Development of a brief

A brief helps the consultant to estimate the time and cost of the project. It should provide information such as:

• the activities of the organisation and its current workplace health and safety programme;
• what you understand the problem is;
• what your requirements are;
• the objectives you want to achieve;
• an assessment of the level of risk;
• the resources to be provided by the company, including personnel;
• timeframes;
• budget guidelines;
• any reporting or progress requirements;
• any special conditions which might affect the consultancy project.

The more information you give the consultant, the better they will be able to prepare an estimate of the cost, timeframe and any other issues.

Health and safety generalists

• On average 75 people die on the job.

• 1 in every 10 people each year are harmed in workplaces,

• 750-900 die from work related ill-health diseases each year.

• There are an estimated 5,000-6,000 hospitalisations each year due to work-related ill-health.

• A worker is 15 times more likely to die from a work-related disease than from a workplace accident.

By law, businesses must manage both the health and safety risks caused by their work. That includes managing mental as well as physical health risks.

For WorkSafe, work-related health is about the way work can impact on worker health and the way worker health may impact on working safely.

WorkSafe needs to understand the impact of work-related disease so it can develop effective ways to improve worker health. It does this using work-related health estimates and burden of harm estimates informed by comprehensive international research.

These estimates are used to compare between illness caused by long-term exposure to hazards, and illness caused by acute injury.

Work Related Ill-Health

Work-related health is about the impact work can have on people’s health. In the past, we’ve called it occupational health.

New Zealand’s organisations can’t keep prospering if their people aren’t healthy. Everyone who goes to work should come home healthy and safe.

There are a range of risks at work that can affect a worker’s health. They include: psychosocial (including bullying and harassment), biological, physical, ergonomic, and chemical risks.

For WorkSafe work-related health is about the way work can impact on worker health and the way worker health may impact on working safely.

By law organisations must manage both the health and safety risks caused by their work. That includes managing mental as well as physical health risks. Work-related ill-health is largely preventable with attention from organisations.

Work-related ill-health estimates

Up to 900 people die in New Zealand each year from work-related causes and there are an estimated 5000-6000 hospitalisations because of the health risks associated with work.

There are several thousand ACC claims for gradual process injuries, such as noise-induced hearing loss.

Many more cases of work-related illness are unreported or are not linked back to a person’s work.

The burden on workers, their families and the wider economy from work-related ill-health far outweighs the burden from work-related injuries.

We are committed to reducing work related ill-health and diseases as well as ensuring those who create the risk are responsible for improving management of work-related health risks. Organisations need to understand and work to mitigate or reduce risk in this area.

Burden of harm estimates from work-related injury and work related ill-health

We have also applied a statistical measure of the quality and length of life lost to injuries and illness, using work-related health estimates and burden of harm estimates.

This measure is called disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost and puts a value to the burden of harm from work-related ill-health and injury.

Different diseases will have different harm profiles. The measure enables comparison between diseases with different harm profiles.

It is used to determine which diseases account for the most ill-health. It also enables comparison between work-related acute injuries and work-related ill-health.

 

 

Work-related health estimates

WorkSafe recently revised its work-related health estimates to take into account new international research, and other information to inform decisions to improve worker health.

• Work-related health deaths are estimated at 750-900 a year.

• There are an estimated 5,000-6,000 hospitalisations each year due to work-related ill-health.

• A worker is 15 times more likely to die from a work-related disease than from a workplace accident.

Burden of harm estimates from work-related injury and ill-health

WorkSafe has also applied a statistical measure of the quality and length of life lost to injuries and illness, using work-related health estimates and burden of harm estimates.

This measure is called disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost and puts a value to the burden of harm from work-related ill-health and injury.

Different diseases will have different harm profiles. The measure enables comparison between diseases with different harm profiles.

It is used to determine which diseases account for the most work-related ill-health. It also enables comparison between work-related acute injuries and work-related ill-health.

Overlapping Duties ensures businesses work together for the health and safety of everyone in the workplace and is a fundamental part of HSWA’s design.

Because businesses have duties to all workers and others affected by their work – not just those they directly employ or engage – they may well have overlapping duties.

Where those duties overlap, PCBUs need to consult, cooperate, and coordinate their activities to meet their health and safety responsibilities to workers and others.

Ensuring businesses work together for the health and safety of everyone in the workplace is a fundamental part of the design of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA).
When two or more businesses are working together at the same location or through a contracting chain, they must work together to fulfill their duties of care.
Where those duties overlap, they need to consult, cooperate, and coordinate their activities to meet their health and safety responsibilities to workers and others.
When there are multiple businesses at the same location, each business must do what they can, within their influence and control, to keep workers safe. In these situations, the most effective way to manage workplace health and safety is by working together.

In general terms, when we talk about businesses working together, we mean that all businesses must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult, cooperate, and coordinate their activities with other businesses particularly when there are overlapping duties in relation to workplace health and safety.

Overlapping duties mean that more than one business has health and safety duties in relation to the same matter.

Working out the extent of your duty
The extent of your duty to manage risk depends on the ability of your business to influence and control the matter. Where there are overlapping duties, the extent of each business’s responsibility to carry out its duties will most likely be different. This will depend on what ability your business has to influence and control the health and safety matter (i.e. the more influence and control your business has over a health and safety matter, the more responsibility you are likely to have).
For example, a business can have influence and control over health and safety matters through:

• control over work activity: a business in control of the work activity may be in the best position
  to control the health and safety risks.
• control of the workplace: a business that has control over the workplace (and/or plant and structures at the workplace) will have some influence and control over health and safety matters
  arising from work carried out by another business.
• control over workers: a business will have more influence and control over its own workers and contractors than those of another business.

A business with a higher level of influence and control (and with the greatest share of the responsibilities) will usually be in the best position to manage the associated risks.
A business with less control or influence may fulfill its responsibilities by making arrangements with the business with the higher level of influence and control.

Can a business contract out of its duties?
A business can’t contract out of its duties but can enter reasonable agreements with other businesses to meet their duties. However, these businesses still retain the responsibility to meet their duties. Each business should have monitoring in place to ensure everyone is doing what they agreed to do.

Questions to ask during consultation where overlapping duties exist?

What work activities will each business carry out? For example:

• What will each business do?
• How will they do it?
• When will they do it?
• Where will it be done?
• What plant or substances may be used?
• Which workers will be involved in the work activity?
• What other people may be affected by the work activity (other than workers)?
• How could one business’s work activities affect the work of the other businesses?
• Will one business’s work activities introduce or increase the health and safety risks to other businesses (and other people) at the workplace or down a contracting chain?
• How could each business’ work activities affect the work environment?

 

 

This is your toolbox for managing safety and health in your operation, your employees and contractors and your premises. It needs to help you deal with hazard and emergency risk and to protect your people and your property.