Design and Present a WHS Management System and Action Plan

Description:

An Occupational Health and Safety Management System (WHSMS) is a coordinated and systematic approach to managing health and safety risks. WHSMSs help organisations to continually improve their safety performance and compliance to health and safety legislation and standards. In doing so, they establish safer working environments that protect people at work by eliminating, or better managing, health and safety hazards.

This assessment task is being given as a major group project that commences early in the term and progresses along with learning sessions. Groups should be formed early in the term and continue through to the end to maintain consistency and coherence.

The group will prepare and present a WHS Management Plan for an organisation based on a previous WHS incident and/or a scenario. For the purpose of this task, you trainer/assessor will also play the role of senior executive and/or a WHS Representative.

Scenario:

Salad Fresh(Formally Mrs Crocket’s Kitchen) is the leading manufacturer of prepared salads, offering customers the convenience of either pre‐washed, assembled salads and dressed salads all with various delightful flavours. Salad Fresh has broadened its product portfolio which now offers nationally recognised Mrs Crocket’s deli salads along with vegetable mixes, microwaveable vegetables, ready to roast vegetables and a variety of ready to heat and eat soups, mashes, risottos and pasta meals all ready to go.

Oh 5 May 2006, e ‘I5 year old labour hire employee (introduced by his mother who worked for the employer) sustained a part amputation injury to his and first fingers of his left hand while working at Mrs Crockets’ Kitchen Pty Ltd (Now Salad Fresh). The employee had been working at Mrs Crocket’s Kitchen on the Onpack machine for one month.

At the time of the incident the employee was cleaning the pipe attached to a pump on the Onpack machine. The Onpack machine pumps pre‐made food product from a hopper through a pump and Lengths of piping into bags that are sealed and packed for distribution. The make‐up of product changes throughout the day and the Onpack machine needs to be cleaned between batches of differing product.

The cleaning process at the time of the incident involved flushing water through the Onpack machine until it runs out at the end, clear of produce. The pump outlet pipe is disconnected at a point 150mm from the pump and hosed clean. The pipe is 100mm in diameter.

The injured worker had disconnected the pump outlet pipe before the pump was electrically isolated with a Spanner and while flushing out the pump outlet pipe noticed some product on the edge of the outlet that was not flushing away. He inserted his hand up into the pipe which came into Contact with the spinning impeller of the pump and one of his fingertips was amputated and the other was severely Lacerated.

There was no guard restricting access to the impeller when the pipe was disconnected to protect fingers inserted into the outlet pipe white the pump was left “on”.

A documented safety procedure was supplied by the employer to WorkSafe dated 2002, but employees who were shown this document claimed they had not seen it before the accident. The employer does have a generic isolation Policy that was apparently not always followed when the Onpack machine was being cleaned. Access to the impeller was not possible when ‘rhs pipes were connected for normal operation of the Onpack machine However, the outlet pipe was not guarded in any way to prevent bodily contact with a dangerous part of the machine when the piping was disconnected and pump was “on” during cleaning.

One witness stated that she was taught to turn the pump “off before the outlet pipe was disconnected from the feed pipe, another witness was told not to put her hand in the pipe. The role for isolating the Onpeck machine during cleaning was allocated to the shift supervisor. According to the injured worker he was not told or shown how to turn the pump off during cleaning.

An inspector attended the site on the day of the incident. A Section 120(1) direction was given that the Onpack machine was not to be operated when the piping was disconnected.

The inspector returned to the site on 8 May 2006 and after further enquiries issued an improvement notice to develop and document safe systems of work for cleaning the Onpack machine and to train employees in those systems.

At the time of the incident Mrs Crooket‘s Kitchen had an isolation policy which stated “where guards are required to be over ridden… to clear or clean equipment as part of normal operations, an approved work instruction and training is required to ensure employee safety’. WorkSafe did not consider this to be a true isolation procedure, which requires power isolation.

Task:

Your group has been given the task to review the entire WHS practice at Salad Fresh and develop a brand new WHS Management System for the organisation.

Your WHSMS will incorporate;

• External, internal and workplace factors and motivators that influence the need to develop an WHSMS
• WHS Policy, processes and management responsibility
• Relevant laws, standards, codes or guidelines as applicable
• Communication and consultation
• Strategic goals and objectives
• Purchasing and hiring guidelines (e.g. equipment safety check)
• Risk management
• Incident management and corrective action procedures
• Training needs and requirements for implementing the system
• Resources requirements for implementing the system
• Internal review and evaluation

Ensure that your WHSMS covers all the above elements.

Your Action plan will typically cover the following elements;

• Introduction
• Context/Background
• Goals and purpose
• WHSMS description
  • Management Overview
• Implementation approach (e.g. phased or instant)
• Contacts, roles and responsibilities
• Major tasks, timelines and priorities
• Implementation schedule
  • Implementation Support
• External consultation
• Facilities and resources
  • Documentation
  • Resources
• Resources requirements
• Staffing requirements
• Training of implementation staff
  • Monitoring and Evaluation
• Information and data collection methods
• Evaluation of data
• Reports and recommendation

The action plan should be written as a formal corporate document with appropriate and suitable style and structure

Although there is no fixed format, groups can use a template for guidance. The plan should be written as a formal corporate document with appropriate and suitable style and structure. All external sources should be cited using the Harvard Referencing System.

This is an extensive project and groups will need to maintain a high degree of efficiency, productivity, communication and documentation throughout the process. Groups will need to demonstrate collaborative work and consultations in the designated project time during the learning sessions. Any long absences, non‐ contribution from group members, procrastination or any other problems should be reported to the trainer/assessor at the earliest.

Assessment Criteria

The following assessment criteria will be used for marking this assessment task. Ensure that you have addressed all of the criteria in your work.

• The WHSMS coherently demonstrates organisation’s WHS structure, policies and resources within its framework
• Define responsibilities, authorities and who is accountable for all activities, personnel and positions which can have an effect on WHS
• External motivators for WHSMS are identified and described
• Internal and organisational motivators and factors are identified and described
• Explained how these motivators and factors impact upon OHMSMS design and development
• Developed a WHS policy and procedure that support systematic approaches to managing WHS within the organisation
• Policy is developed within the context of relevant legislations and regulations
• Applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, or codes are identified and accurately referred according to prevailing legislations
• WHSMS is developed taking an organisational view and incorporates relevant functional and operational areas within its framework
• Strategic objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound
• WHSMS contains guidelines and standards for purchase/hire of new equipment
• Potential hazards and risks are identified and strategies are developed to mitigate the risks
• Risk management approach is adopted in analysis using a risk matrix consistent with common WHS practices
• Communication and consultation processes are established sharing relevant WHS information with employees and service providers in the supply chain
• WHSMS establishes procedures and allocates resources to identify and provide for the training needs of personnel
• Training programs cover WHS induction, task training, emergency procedures, WHS committee and WHS representative consultation training as well as ongoing training needs
• Inspection checklists and measures cover all the WHS risks known to be present and provide scope for identifying and managing new or previously unforeseen WHS risks
• Inspection and testing Plan specifies particulars of the inspection and test program, including hold/witness points, methods and acceptance criteria for WHS with processes and products
• Inspection and testing Plan specifies responsible persons and record requirements
• Incident management and corrective action procedures are developed to control the use of products and work practices
• Incident management and corrective action procedures appropriately address WHS issues through corrective action and injury management procedures
• Established procedures for planning and undertaking internal reviews (including audits) to verify that WHS processes and practice match the required plans and procedures
• Designed the evaluation protocol that help evaluate efficacy of the system and its components
• The action plan is appropriate structured, coherent and written in a formal style reflecting a real‐life approach
• The action plan is within the context of the WHSMS and defines its goals and purposes
• The action plan is developed with a view to support implementation of WHSMS and covers all the required elements
• Appropriate implementation approach is described to support implementation of the system
• Identified and allocated relevant roles and responsibilities of the implementation team
• Major project tasks are identified and prioritised based on the implementation schedule
• Tasks carry a defined timeline for completion and support the implementation schedule
• Implementation schedule identifies key steps and milestones over the complete implementation of the system
• Implementation support is described in teams of available resources and external consultation
• Identified situations where WHS specialists and technical advisors may be required
• Need for personnel to maintain the WHSMS is identified and justified through staffing requirements
• Identify and document training needs for the implementation of WHSMS within the organisation
• Identify and document resources necessary to implement and maintain implementation of WHSMS within the organisation
• Developed a monitoring procedure to ensure that the system approach is consistent with expected outcomes and standards
• Reporting mechanisms are developed and suggested to continuously report system performance to key stakeholders
• System evaluation procedures describe methods for collection of information and data
• Methods and techniques for evaluation of data includes the use of evaluation data for future use

Submission Guidelines

This task must be prepared and submitted in a word‐processed layout. Handwritten documents cannot be accepted for this task.

Submit:

• WHS Management System document with attachment of all the ancillary document created
• WHS Management System Action Plan
• A group statement signed by all the members specifying roles and responsibility to each member and work contribution
• Copies of relevant legislations (relevant parts/pages only)

Electronic versions of the assessment task and email/electronic submission arrangements are at further discretion of the trainer/assessor.