Continual improvement of the system

In 2005 and 2007, Safety & Wellbeing commissioned independent research to determine whether the UTS was meeting its statutory obligation to consult staff on occupational health and safety issues.

The research

The research assessed staff (and postgraduate students) awareness of health and safety issues and the processes in place for reporting and managing problems.

Results

The results of the research were generally positive, finding that:

• staff who worked in high risk areas or who had health and safety responsibilities within their role had a proactive stance on health and safety, and
• concluded that UTS was indeed meeting its obligation to consult with staff on health and safety matters.

The research identified the following opportunities for improvement:

• a more formalised process for receiving health and safety information,
• more face to face training,
• health and safety information to be more prominent,
• assist in making staff more aware of their health and safety obligations, and
• greater focus on low risk groups.

Actions to address concerns

Actions to address these areas of concern were initiated and further work has been included in the safety and wellbeing plan for 2009-11.

These include:

• Health and safety training:

  • EHS essentials is offered to all staff, and
  • EHS for supervisors and managers is available to support supervisors and managers in understanding their EHS responsibilities.

• Safety & Wellbeing:

  • undertook reviews of the Safety & Wellbeing web site in 2007/2008 and 2009/2010,
  • have also partnered with UTS: Events, Exhibitions and Projects to design educational videos on correct workstation set up and preventing occupational overuse injuries by taking pause breaks,
  • continue to provide instructional sessions covering both office safety and workstation ergonomics to small groups of staff in their workplaces , and this is publicised during the EHS planning workshops, and
  • leaflets with health, safety and security information for students and staff have been produced, as have leaflets on computer comfort.