Incidents
Module 1: Why and what do we report?
- Why Do We Report?
- What Do We Report?
- Primary Incident Types
- Downloads
Why Do We Report?
Freshmax Policy:
- Our internal health & safety policy says that we must report.
- Failure to report may be considered misconduct and result in disciplinary action.
Responsibility & Accountability:
- Own our mistakes, we are only human
- Learn from our mistakes
- Identify hazards and implement controls
- Identify training gaps and opportunities
- Identify and correct procedural gaps
- Prevent similar incidents from occurring
- Reduce potential risk to yourself and others
- Save money, injury and property damage costs
- Recognise when we get it right
Conversations
Talking safety leads to a better understanding and awareness within the team, allowing for greater levels of engagement and more opportunities to prevent future injury and/or property damage.
The act of reporting provides Health & Safety, HR, Senior Managers and the Board of Directors with the detail when they aren’t on the ground and demonstrates, at a high level that conversations and everything that flows from them are happening.
What Do We Report?
The primary incident types that we report are set out below in the Freshmax Safety Triangle. We report both actual events and safety engagements.
A Notifiable Event is the most severe workplace incident that can happen in which the scene must be preserved and the regulator MUST BE NOTIFIED
This includes:
- Notifiable Death
- Notifiable Injury
- Notifiable Illness
- Notifiable Incident
A notifiable incident is where someone’s health or safety is seriously endangered or threatened. People may be put at serious risk even if they were some distance from the incident. In other words a potentially dangerous incident.
A notifiable incident also covers the incidents which may have only resulted in minor (non-notifiable) or no injury but had the potential to cause serious injury, illness or death.
In all cases or suspected cases contact Health & Safety ASAP. Notifications to the regulator will be initiated and managed by the Health & Safety department.
Lost Time Injury is any event where an injury occurs to a ‘team member’ and they are unable to report for work at the start of their next normal shift after they have been injured at work.
This would normally be on the recommendation of a medical practitioner:
- Australia: The doctor/hospital will issue a certificate of capacity which will also be required to make a WorkCover claim
- New Zealand: The doctor/hospital will issue a medical certificate and lodge an ACC claim on your behalf
Once we have received medical advice stating the team member requires time off we must not allow them to return earlier unless the doctor issues an updated certificate giving the all clear.
If the injury happened at or was aggravated due to work tasks then it is a workplace injury regardless of any pre-existing conditions.
A Minor Injury event is where somebody gets hurt, but the person doesn’t need to take time off work.
They may require first aid and/or need to see a doctor at the time but will be back for their next shift.
Property Damage is ANY event that causes damage to property.
This includes:
- Buildings and Site
- Machinery
- Vehicles
- Equipment
- Work Product and Stock
A Near Miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or property damage – but had the potential to do so. Only a fortunate break in the chain of events prevented an injury, fatality or damage; in other words, a miss that was nonetheless very near.
Near Misses are a zero cost learning tool for the business.
Identifying and talking about near misses helps us to take a proactive approach, identify training opportunities and prevent the same or similar things from occurring in the future where the people involved may not be so lucky.
An Unsafe Act is any behavior and/or circumstances that don’t necessarily provide direct danger to anyone but are seen as matters that need to be fixed. This might include breaching policies and/or procedures.
An example would be someone is not wearing the correct PPE (personal protective equipment) while onsite. They have not been involved in an event but they are not following site policy and procedures which are put in place for their safety.
Reporting and discussing this is an opportunity to engage with the person and discuss safety before something unfortunate does happen.
A Positive Observation is recognition that a person and/or team is living our values and highlights behaviors that ensure we all get home safe at the end of our shift.
This is another opportunity to engage with our team and let them know they are doing a good job.
