THERE is a legal requirement to provide workplace trainingin OH&S to assist in achieving the duty of care for the safety, health and welfare of our employees. This is contained in the principle OH&S Act in each state of Australia.
There are also specific safety training requirements, which are prescribed in specific regulation provisions. These include training for first aid; safety committees; forklift drivers; crane operators; rehabilitation coordinators; construction induction; manual handling; confined space entry; and hazardous substances in the workplace.
Besides these prescribed training requirements, there willmost likely be other aspects which you will need to train your employees on, such as your emergency evacuation procedures, using machine guarding, operation of machinery and tools, general safety induction, workstation ergonomic training, chemical awareness, risk assessments, and incident investigation.
How far you go with training will depend on your specific business requirements, and the legislation as it applies to your business.
Safety training needs should be more than a tick-the-box exercise. It should follow careful consideration of processes, activities, hazards and risks, and include your OH&S consultative mechanism such as OH&S committee in discussions.
There are also mandatory requirements for the training of OH&S representatives and committee members in some jurisdictions. Tips for identifying staff training requirements:
• develop a training matrix which identifies OHS skills required for employees and their respective job position;
• develop job safety analyses and include the training and competency for each task;
• identify specific hazard risk assessments (e.g. manual handling-safe lifting technique training);
• implement a workplace OHS audit;
• identify specific legislation requirements (e.g. plant operator certification):
• identify specific safety training requirements; and
• undertake an investigation of incidents.
NSW Business Chamber 02 9350 8149.