Work Safety Awards Western Australia
2009 Finalists and winners
There were 51 entries for the 2009 awards. The judging panel selected 14 finalists.
Category 1 – Best safety and health management system
1(a) Private sector
Finalists
- Ertech Pty Ltd
- Park Engineers Pty Ltd
- Perth Clinic (winner)
- Probuild Constructions (Aust) Pty Ltd
1(b) Public sector
Finalist and winner
Category 2 – Best workplace safety and health practice in small business
Finalist and winner
Category 3 – Best solution to an identified workplace safety and health issue
Finalists
- Albany Port Authority - Explosive ordnance removal project
- Bunbury Engineering Surveys - Remote controlled survey boat
- Broome Port Authority - Water pressure release system
- PPC Linley Velley Fresh - carton erector (winner)
- St John of God Pathology - Biological safety cabinet
Category 4 – Best individual contribution to safety and health
4(a) No formal responsibility for occupational safety and health
Finalists
- Neshko Sajtinac, Main Roads Western Australia
- Rob Greenhalgh, University of Western Australia (winner)
4(b) Occupational; safety and health manager or person with responsibility
Finalist and winner
- Gerard Overdijk, Badge Constructions (WA) Pty Ltd
Winners
The Perth Clinic is a 98-bed psychiatric hospital that provides acute health care to patients with mental health problems. In addition to standard hospital and patient care hazards, the Clinic must deal with unpredictable patient behaviour and the potential for violence.
Perth Clinic has developed and maintained a high quality, integrated safety management system that ensures the safety and wellbeing of patients, visitors, contractors and its 185 employees. It uses key performance indicators to monitor and improve safety and health practices, and has consistently recorded a lost time injury and disease rate below the industry average.
The Public Transport Authority
The Public Transport Authority is responsible for all public transport in metropolitan and regional areas of the State, and for designing, building and maintaining the public transport infrastructure. It has more than 1300 employees spread across the State.
The Authority has an excellent and practical safety and health management system in place, and safety is incorporated into all key result areas for the organisation. A good safety culture is evident. A recent poll indicated staff believe the Public Transport Authority takes the safety of its employees and customers very seriously.
Joondalup Lotteries House was constructed with a Lotterywest grant in 1999. It supplies low-cost office accommodation to not-for-profit organisations that provide services to Perth’s northern suburbs.
In order to improve safety practices, a safety committee was established with representatives from the not-for-profit organisations that use the accommodation. A comprehensive safety and health management system, that outlines safety procedures, policies and checklists was developed and implemented.
PPC Linley Valley Fresh is a pork abattoir which processes and packages pork for domestic and export markets.
Manual assembly of large volumes of different sized cartons put workers at risk of repetitive strain injury. Existing automated carton assembly units could only make one sized carton. To reduce to risk of injury, a prototype carton erector was developed to assemble seven different sized cartons. There have been no manual handling injuries since it was introduced.
Rob Greenhalgh is a Senior Administrative Officer for the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of WA. He has also been the voluntary safety officer for 15 years.
Staff and students face a wide range of hazards, such as rotating machinery parts, chemical substances, flammable and toxic gases, cryogenics and lasers. Rob has worked tirelessly to develop and maintain safe systems of work and establish a sound safety culture. He has actively involved staff and students in hazard identification, assessment and control.
Gerard Overdijk (known as Jed) is the Senior Construction Manager at Badge Constructions.
With a demanding job and no formal safety qualifications, Jed took on the job of reviewing and making extensive changes to Badge Constructions’ safety management systems. He consulted with safety specialists and staff of all levels, and successfully implemented a new management system which received national accreditation.