Safety Leadership and Officer Duties

Under the model Work Health and Safety laws, a person conducting a business or undertaking, known as a PCBU, has the primary duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and others affected by its work. Workers also have duties: take reasonable care for their own safety, take care not to harm others, follow reasonable instructions and cooperate with reasonable policies. Key points: our organisation is the PCBU, duties cannot be handed off to someone else, and reasonably practicable means doing what is reasonably able to be done after weighing the risk and the ways to control it.

Officers are people who make, or take part in making, decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the business, such as directors and senior executives. They must exercise due diligence so the organisation meets its safety duties. The model law sets out six elements: know about work health and safety, understand our operations and their hazards, make sure the right resources are used, make sure there are processes to receive and respond to information on incidents and hazards, make sure there are processes to comply with duties, and verify that these resources and processes are provided and used.

Our organisation must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult with workers who are, or are likely to be, directly affected by a health and safety matter. Where health and safety representatives have been elected, they must be included. Consultation means sharing information, giving workers a reasonable chance to express views and raise issues, taking those views into account, and telling workers the outcome. Key points: consult when identifying hazards, deciding controls, changing work or facilities, and proposing procedures; support HSRs to do their role; and remember that workers in participants' homes know the risks best.

Safety culture is what people actually do about safety when no one is watching, and it is shaped most by what leaders say, do, reward and ignore. This lesson covers everyday leadership behaviours and how to verify that controls work in practice. Key points: talk about safety often and honestly, thank people for reporting, never pressure workers to take shortcuts, act on concerns and close the loop, and go and see the work. Controls such as hoists, two person transfers and check in systems only protect people if they are available, understood and used.

When something goes wrong, the aim is to learn and prevent it happening again, not to find someone to blame. This lesson sets out the leader's role after an incident. Key points: make people safe and get care first, notify regulators where required and preserve the site for serious incidents, gather facts from the people involved, look for system causes such as work design, training, equipment and staffing, agree actions that address those causes, and share what was learned. Individual accountability still matters for reckless or deliberate acts, but most incidents have system causes.

Supporting injured workers to recover and return to safe work is good for them and for our organisation. Workers compensation schemes are mostly run by each state and territory and their rules differ, so follow our return to work procedure and involve our return to work coordinator. Key points: stay in contact with care, offer suitable duties where possible, keep medical information confidential and avoid blame. Safety data such as incidents, near misses, hazard reports, audits and worker feedback helps you spot trends early, so look beyond counts, act on patterns and share results.

This case study follows Aroha, a service manager, after two workers are injured by Liam, a participant whose distress has been escalating. His support plan and risk assessment say two workers should be rostered for personal care, but rosters show one worker on most shifts because of vacancies. The lesson shows how Aroha escalates the gap to officers, consults the team, works with Liam and his behaviour support practitioner, and verifies that the control is now in place. Key points: a control on paper is not a control, and resources must match the risk.

This case study follows Nikhil, a team leader, after a worker, Mei, injures her back during a transfer in a supported home. The hoist battery was flat, and Mei tried to help the resident manually rather than leave him on the floor. The lesson shows how Nikhil responds on the day, investigates without blame, finds the system causes, and supports Mei to return to work. Key points: care first, look for system causes, track actions to completion and support early, positive return to work.