We recognise the importance of our legislative obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 to prevent work-related injury and illness. Workplace health and safety hazards can be physical or psychological and they can derive from both office-based and off-site work environments. We articulate our commitment to workplace health and safety through related policy and supporting documents.
Initiatives
As part of our commitment to providing a safe working environment, we delivered the following initiatives in 2015–16:
- a network qualified first aid officers and three fully equipped first aid rooms for employees
- a network of trained mental health first aid officers
- a network of trained Workplace Harassment Contact Officers
- trained rehabilitation case managers available to assist staff
- early intervention initiatives
- an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to provide confidential counselling to employees and their immediate family members, and
- wellbeing program for staff including:
- training on mental health awareness conducted by the Black Dog Institute
- performance management training to support managers and employees for their end-of-cycle performance discussions
- posture and flexibility classes, and
- voluntary influenza vaccinations.
Outcomes
These initiatives led to the following outcomes in 2015–16:
- no directions or notices were given to our agency
- no work health and safety investigations were conducted
- no notifiable incidents occurred
- one worker's compensation claim was accepted by Comcare, with the case quickly resolved and closed, and
- one claim for compensation was pending determination by Comcare at 30 June 2016.