Steven Macdessi - Occupational health and safety management plans

By Steven Macdessi

A person with control of a construction project where five or more persons are working, or are likely to be working, simultaneously on a construction site must ensure that:

(a) a site-specific occupational health and safety management plan is prepared before the work commences; and
(b) the plan is monitored, maintained and kept up to date during the course of the work.

The person with control of the construction project must ensure that the occupational health and safety management plan includes:

(a) a statement of responsibilities, listing the names, positions and responsibilities of all persons who will have specific responsibilities on the site for occupational health and safety;
(b) the detail of arrangements for ensuring compliance with the occupational health and safety induction training requirements of this national standard;
(c) the detail of arrangements for the co-ordination of health and safety issues of persons engaged to undertake construction work;
(d) the detail of arrangements for managing occupational health and safety incidents when they occur, including the identities of and contact details of all persons who will be available to prevent, prepare for, respond to and manage recovery from such incidents;
(e) any site safety rules, with the detail of arrangements for ensuring that all persons at the site, whether employees, contractors, suppliers or visitors, are informed of the rules;
(f) the hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control information for all work activities assessed as having safety risks; and
(g) the safe work method statements for all high-risk construction work.

The person with control of the construction project must ensure that a copy of the occupational health and safety management plan is available for inspection throughout the course of the construction work by:

(a) any person engaged to undertake construction work at the site;
(b) any person about to commence work at the site; and
(c) an employee member of an occupational health and safety committee, an occupational health and safety representative, or a person elected by persons employed at the site to represent them on health and safety matters.

The person with control of the construction project must ensure that any person engaged to carry out construction work at a construction site is provided with a copy of all relevant parts of the occupational health and safety management plan for that site before they commence work.

If an occupational health and safety management plan is changed during the course of construction work, the person with control of the construction project must ensure that all persons engaged to carry out construction work at the site concerned are promptly provided with a copy of the changed parts of the plan of relevance to their work.


SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENTS

A person with control of a construction project must ensure that:

(a) each person with control over high-risk construction work, including sub-contractors and self-employed persons, gives the person with control of the construction project a written safe work method statement for the high-risk construction work to be carried out, before commencing that work; and
(b) all such safe work method statements are kept up to date and reviewed whenever there is a change to the high-risk construction work.

A person with control of the construction project must ensure that there are arrangements for:

(a) ensuring that all persons undertaking construction work to which a safe work method statement applies comply with the safe work method statement; and
(b) when a person is not complying with a safe work method statement, they are directed to stop work immediately and not to resume work until the safe work method statement is complied with, unless an immediate cessation of work is likely to increase the risk to health and safety, in which event they must be directed to stop work as soon as it is safe to do so.

If no other person is responsible for the preparation of a written safe work method statement for high-risk construction work, the person with control of the construction project must:

(a) prepare the written safe work method statement;
(b) keep the statement up to date and review it whenever there is a change to the high-risk construction work;
(c) ensure that the work is carried out in accordance with the statement; and
(d) ensure that when there is non-compliance with the statement, work is stopped immediately, or when it is safe to do so, and not resumed until the statement is


OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY TRAINING

The following applies to apply to all persons with control of construction projects, all persons with control of construction work and all persons undertaking construction work, with the exception of:

(a) visitors to a construction site who are accompanied by a person who has received occupational health and safety induction training; and
(b) persons temporarily at a construction site to deliver plant, supplies, materials or services where a risk assessment indicates that any risks to such persons can be controlled through other measures.

A person with control of a construction project or control of construction work must not direct or allow another person, including a self-employed person, to carry out construction work on the construction project unless the person with control is satisfied that the other person has undertaken occupational health and safety induction training.

Persons engaged to undertake construction work must not do so until they have completed occupational health and safety induction training and training identified in the risk assessment for the work to be undertaken.

A person with control of a construction project or control of construction work must retain records for a reasonable period after the completion of the construction project of the occupational health and safety induction training and any other training given to persons directly engaged or trained by them to undertake construction work on the project.