Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents Author: Martin McMullan | Manager, Zero Harm April 2015 VERSION 1 Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents Copyright information This publication is copyright © NZ Transport Agency. Material in it may be reproduced for personal or inhouse use without formal permission or charge, provided suitable acknowledgement is made to this publication and the NZ Transport Agency as the source. Requests and enquiries about the reproduction of material in this publication for any other purpose should be made to: Manager, Information NZ Transport Agency Private Bag 6995 Wellington 6141 The permission to reproduce material in this publication does not extend to any material for which the copyright is identified as being held by a third party. Authorisation to reproduce material belonging to a third party must be obtained from the copyright holder(s) concerned. Disclaimer The NZ Transport Agency has endeavoured to ensure material in this document is technically accurate and reflects legal requirements. However, the document does not override governing legislation. The NZ Transport Agency does not accept liability for any consequences arising from the use of this document. If the user of this document is unsure whether the material is correct, they should refer directly to the relevant legislation and contact the NZ Transport Agency. More information NZ Transport Agency December 2014 If you have further queries, call our contact centre on 0800 699 000 or write to us: NZ Transport Agency Private Bag 6995 Wellington 6141 This document is available on the NZ Transport Agency’s website at www.nzta.govt.nz NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY i Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT PLAN Purpose This management plan outlines the updating procedures and contact points for the document. Document information DOCUMENT NAME Minimum Standard for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents DOCUMENT NUMBER ZHMS-02 DOCUMENT AVAILABILITY This document is located in electronic form on the NZ Transport Agency’s website at www.nzta.govt.nz. DOCUMENT OWNER Martin McMullan | Manager, Zero Harm – NZ Transport Agency DOCUMENT SPONSOR Martin McMullan | Manager, Zero Harm – NZ Transport Agency Amendments and review strategy All corrective action/improvement requests (CAIRs) suggesting changes will be acknowledged by the document owner. Amendments (minor revisions) Review (major revisions) Notification COMMENTS FREQUENCY Updates incorporated immediately they occur. As required Amendments fundamentally changing the content or structure of the document will be incorporated as soon as practicable. They may require coordinating with the review team timetable. Two yearly All users that have registered their interest by email to [email protected] will be advised by email of amendments and updates. Immediately Other information (at document owner’s discretion) There will be occasions, depending on the subject matter, when amendments will need to be worked through by the review team before the amendment is actioned. This may cause some variations to the above noted time frames. NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY ii Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents RECORD OF AMENDMENT AMENDMENT NUMBER NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY DESCRIPTION OF CHANGE EFFECTIVE DATE UPDATED BY iii Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This document provides a minimum standard for reporting any health and safety incidents that may occur on a NZ Transport Agency project. It has been produced in consultation with an industry working group representing contractors and designers as part of the Transport Agency Zero Harm Programme. The industry working group included: • • • • • Martin McMullan | Manager, Zero Harm – NZ Transport Agency Martin Hughes | Growth and Construction Manager – Transfield Services Wade To | Wellington and South Island Manager – Brian Perry Civil / Fletcher Michele Berry | Zero Harm Coordinator – NZ Transport Agency Zero Harm Industry Group Members Contact us Zero Harm – NZ Transport Agency E: [email protected] NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY iv Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Benefit of having a minimum standard ...................................................................................... 1 2. Zero Harm Incident Reporting Tool .............................................................................................. 1 3. Responsibilities ............................................................................................................................ 1 4. Reporting health and safety incidents ......................................................................................... 2 4.1 Health and Safety Incident Reporting Framework ...................................................................... 3 4.2 Immediate work actions following a Class 1 incident ................................................................. 4 5. Incident Investigation Report ....................................................................................................... 4 5.1 Who should carry out the investigation ..................................................................................... 4 5.2 Reporting timeframes ............................................................................................................... 4 5.3 Exemptions ............................................................................................................................... 5 5.4 Lessons Learnt .......................................................................................................................... 5 6. Monthly Reporting ........................................................................................................................ 6 Appendices Appendix A: ........................................................................................................................................ 7 NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY v Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents 1. INTRODUCTION One of the NZ Transport Agency’s goals is to achieve Zero Harm by 2020, while supporting the government’s objective to reduce workplace fatalities and serious harm by 25%. This document provides a minimum standard for reporting any health, safety or environmental incidents that may occur on a NZ Transport Agency project. It must be used by all contractors working on physical works projects including network outcomes contracts, capital projects and maintenance and emergency works projects. Professional service contractors must also adhere to this minimum standard when they are involved in work on the State Highway Network or Transport Agency construction sites. 1.1 Benefit of having a minimum standard The Transport Agency uses statistical information on the cause of incidents to make informed decisions on how to improve the health and safety of its staff and supply chain. A minimum standard on reporting will provide the Transport Agency with consistent and timely reporting of incidents. This allows for more accurate tracking of trends that impact health and safety of those involved with Transport Agency projects. There are many benefits for having a minimum reporting standard. These include: • Consistency across all Agency projects • Enables benchmarking of both lead and lag indicator performance • Sets an expectation for us all to follow. 2. ZERO HARM INCIDENT REPORTING TOOL Any health and safety incident that occurs on a NZ Transport Agency project must be reported on a project basis using the Zero Harm Incident Reporting Tool. This tool is a simple to use, intuitive reporting system that allows for real-time reporting incidents. It also allows contractors to easily produce consistent monthly health and safety performance reports for the Transport Agency. The tool was developed in consultation with an industry working group. The Zero Harm Industry Leadership Group agreed that generic reporting data would be shared across the supply chain to demonstrate trends and share lessons learnt so that industry health and safety standards can improve. It can be accessed through this link: http://nztareporting.azurewebsites.net/. A login and password can be obtained by emailing [email protected] or by requesting one on the reporting website. If you need help using the Zero Harm Incident Reporting Tool please email [email protected], or follow the instructions and troubleshooting guide on the site. 3. RESPONSIBILITIES The principal contractor’s project manager is responsible for reporting on the contract’s health and safety performance by the 9th of the following month using the Zero Harm Incident Reporting Tool. The task may be delegated, however ultimate responsibility remains with the project manager. It is also the responsibility of the principal contractor’s project manager to report any incident as per the reporting timeframes detailed in section 4 of this document. NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY 1 Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents 4. REPORTING HEALTH AND SAFETY INCIDENTS When a health and safety incident occurs on a Transport Agency project, the contractor must immediately evaluate the event and categorise the incident severity as either Class 1 or 2. Class 1 incidents are those that result in a fatality, a serious harm or notifiable incident, or a dangerous occurrence or potential serious near hit/miss. Class 2 incidents include lost time injuries, or an incident requiring medical treatment. When the incident has been classified, the contractor must then notify the Transport Agency as specified in the notification summary below. Incident Severity Class Class 1 Incident Classification Notification timeframe Method Fatality / Death As soon as practicable but within 4 hours Phone & email NZTA Project or Contract Manager, enter into NZTA Online reporting tool Serious Harm or Notifiable Incident As soon as practicable but within 24 hours Phone & email NZTA Project or Contract Manager, enter into NZTA Online reporting tool Dangerous Occurrence, Potential Serious Near Hit / Miss As soon as practicable but within 24 hours Phone & email NZTA Project or Contract Manager, enter into NZTA Online reporting tool Lost Time Injury As soon as practicable but within 48 hours Phone & email NZTA Project or Contract Manager, enter into NZTA Online reporting tool Medical Treatment Within 72 hours Phone & email NZTA Project or Contract Manager, enter into NZTA Online reporting tool Class 2 The Health and Safety Incident Reporting Framework (section 4.1) outlines how each incident must be reported in full. NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY 2 Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents 4.1 Health and Safety Incident Reporting Framework Incident Occurs Contractor Evaluates Incident Class 1 Class 2 Fatality Serious Harm or Notifiable Incident Dangerous Occurrence/ Potential Serious Near Miss Lost Time Injury Medical Treatment Contractor notifies WSNZ & NZTA as soon as practicable (within 4 hrs) Contractor notifies WSNZ & NZTA as soon as practicable (within 24 hrs) Contractor notifies NZTA as soon as practicable (within 24 hrs) Contractor notifies NZTA as soon as practicable (within 48 hours) Contractor notifies NZTA as soon as practicable (within 72 hours) Contractor records incident in NZTA reporting tool (within 24 hrs) Contractor records incident in NZTA reporting tool (within 48 hours) Contractor records incident in NZTA reporting tool (within 72 hours) Contractor records incident in NZTA reporting tool (within 24 hrs) Contractor provides written notice to WSNZ (within 7 days) Contractor investigates & reports lessons learnt & corrective action to NZTA (within 4 weeks) Contractor investigates & reports initial assessment to NZTA (within 14 days) Contractor investigates and reports initial assessment to NZTA (within 4 weeks) Contractor provides findings, causes and lessons learnt to NZTA (within 30 days) Contractor provides investigation final report to NZTA (within 3 months) Contractor advises NZTA lessons learnt & plan for short & long term corrective action Where appropriate NZTA will publish a Safety Alert NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY 3 Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents 4.2 Immediate work actions following a Class 1 incident The below immediate work actions apply for all Class 1 incidents. Fatality/Death In the event of a fatality, all work on that project must be suspended immediately. Work must not resume until an assessment of risk is undertaken, and authorisation is given by the Highways & Network Operations General Manager, in consultation with the Zero Harm Manager. Serious Harm or Notifiable Incident In the event of a workplace serious harm or notifiable incident, work must be suspended immediately on that equipment/work area. Work must not resume until an appropriate assessment of risk is undertaken and authorisation is given by the NZTA Project Manager, in consultation with the Zero Harm Manager. Dangerous Occurrence, Potential Serious Near Hit/Miss In the event of a workplace dangerous occurrence or potential serious near hit/miss, the contractor must investigate the incident and associated equipment/work area to ensure that work can safely continue. 5. INCIDENT INVESTIGATION REPORT All Class 1 and 2 health and safety incidents must be formally investigated and reported. It is imperative that comprehensive data on incidents are captured and recorded in the investigation report. The contractor must provide sufficient resources to enable an appropriate level of investigations so that all essential factors are recorded. Lessons learnt must be identified and communicated promptly. The level of detail of these investigations, and who forms the investigation team, should be appropriate to the incident severity class. All findings must have substantive documentation. At a minimum, the investigation report must include: • • • • • • • • • • • Date and location of incident Summary of events Immediate cause of incident Underlying cause of incident Root cause of incident Immediate action taken Human factors Outcome of incident e.g. severity of harm caused, injury, damage Potential consequences Corrective actions with clearly defined timelines and people responsible for implementation Recommendation for further improvement 5.1 Who should carry out the investigation A sufficiently trained and competent person must carry out the investigations. They should have the appropriate involvement with relevant personnel and their representatives. 5.2 Reporting timeframes The Health and Safety Incident Reporting Framework (section 4.1) outlines reporting timeframes expected by the Transport Agency. Minimum timeframes for initial notification, input into the reporting, and written notice(s) are dependent on the class and type of incident. NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY 4 Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents 5.3 Exemptions There may be occasions where an incident may occur and the prescribed level of investigation and reporting will provide little value to the organisation, or the resource and effort required is not proportionate with the potential benefits. In such circumstances, an ‘exemption’ may be authorised at the discretion of the Transport Agency’s Zero Harm Manager after a review of relevant facts, circumstances and outcomes. This exemption shall take the form of a formal notification and cannot be delegated to another party. 5.4 Lessons learnt It is vital that lessons learnt from incidents are communicated effectively by contractors within their own organisation and to the Transport Agency. Contractors must report to the Transport Agency to confirm that they have implemented corrective actions arising from investigations. This must include assessments of the effectiveness of the actions and whether further risk mitigation is possible. Details of lessons learnt must be provided to the Transport Agency as soon as final causation and advice for potential avoidance has been fully determined. The Transport Agency will publish “Safety Alerts” to key contactors on a regular basis and publish them on its website in order to maximise awareness of lessons learnt across the supply chain. The Safety Alerts published will be generic in nature identifying what went wrong, corrective actions and additional learnings. They will not identify contractors or the Transport Agency project. NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY 5 Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents 7. MONTHLY REPORTING Contractors are required to provide the Transport Agency with monthly health and safety reports. This will help the Transport Agency benchmark performance of contractors, identify trends, and work towards a Zero Harm culture on projects. As part of our governance structure all initiatives will be measured using lead and lag indicators to measure effectiveness and value for money. Our Lead and Lag indicators have been developed to capture all tasks. Contractors must enter their health and safety incident data into the Transport Agency’s Zero Harm Incident Reporting Tool. Data can be entered on a daily basis but all data for that month must be entered by the 9th of the following month. Lead Indicators body Table Lag Indicators body Number of drug and alcohol tests Number of Fatal incidents Proportion of drug and alcohol tests that are negative Number of Serious Harm incidents Number of site health and safety audits Number of Lost Time Injuries (LTI) Number of safety briefings Number of Medical Treatment Injuries (MTI) Number of near misses Number of First Aid Injuries (FAI) Number of positive reinforcements Number of staff on reduced/alternate duties Number of traffic management inspections Number of significant environmental incidents Number of Safety in Design workshops (Designers only) Number of Underground service strikes Number of Safety in Design reviews (Designers only) Number of Overhead service strikes Number of sub-contractor reviews Number of property damage incidents Number of stop work actions Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) Total Recordable Frequency Rate (TRFR) NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY 6 Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents Appendix A Definition of terms For the purposes of this document, unless inconsistent with context, the following definitions apply: Below is the definition of Serious Harm from Schedule 1 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992: Serious harm means death, or harm of a kind or description declared by the Governor-General by Order in Council to be serious for the purposes of the Act; and 'seriously harmed' has a corresponding meaning. Until such an Order in Council is made, the following types of harm are defined in Schedule 1 as 'serious harm' for the purposes of the Act: 1. Any of the following conditions that amounts to or results in permanent loss of bodily function, or temporary severe loss of bodily function: respiratory disease, noise-induced hearing loss, neurological disease, cancer, dermatological disease, communicable disease, musculoskeletal disease, illness caused by exposure to infected material, decompression sickness, poisoning, vision impairment, chemical or hot-metal burn of eye, penetrating wound of eye, bone fracture, laceration, crushing. Amputation of body part. Burns requiring referral to a specialist registered medical practitioner or specialist outpatient clinic. Loss of consciousness from lack of oxygen. Loss of consciousness, or acute illness requiring treatment by a registered medical practitioner, from absorption, inhalation or ingestion of any substance. Any harm that causes the person harmed to be hospitalised for a period of 48 hours or more commencing within seven days of the harm's occurrence. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The definition of serious harm is relevant to employers' duties to manage hazards, notification requirements, employees' rights to refuse to do dangerous work, and inspectors' powers to issue prohibition notices Definition of a Site For standalone/individual contracts, the site is as defined in the contract documents i.e. within the site boundary (or within an offsite assembly area) as described in the works information. Note that, in addition, if work activities associated with the project take place remote from the immediate area of the site, but still on the Transport Agency network i.e. placing traffic management signs in advance of the works area and accidents occur to the workforce whilst engaged in erecting, dismantling or maintain these signs, the accidents should be reported. • • • For Design and Build contracts the definition as per sand-alone projects applies. For work procured under the Network Outcome Contract the “site” is the area covered by the agreement. Note this would include site depots. For Design, Build Finance and Operate contracts or PPP contracts, the “site” is the area defined in the PPP agreement. Monthly Reporting Definitions - Lag Indicators Fatal Incident - an incident resulting in the loss of life of a Transport Agency, Contractor or Subcontract employee or member of the public. Notifiable or Reportable Injury - any incident required under health and safety legislation to be reported to a Statutory Authority (e.g. WorkSafe NZ, ACC, New Zealand Police Maritime NZ, etc.). NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY 7 Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents Dangerous Occurrence - an event or set of conditions or circumstances where the outcome on that occasion did not result in a major injury or damage, however, with only a slight change in the circumstances, had the potential to cause fatal injuries, serious bodily harm or major property damage Lost Time Injury - any work related injury or illness certified by a medical practitioner and compensable under Worker Compensation laws (e.g. ACC), that results in absence from work for at least one scheduled day or shift, following the day or shift when the injury occurred. Medical Treatment Injury - the management and care of a patient to effect medical treatment or combat disease or disorder not including: • • Visits to a physician or other licensed health care professional solely for observation or counselling; The conduct of diagnostic procedures, such as x-rays and blood test s, including the administration of prescription medications used solely for diagnostic purposes (e.g ., eye drops to dilate pupils) or First Aid as defined below. First Aid Injury - treatment administered by and within the qualifications of a trained first aid attendant or Occupational Health Nurse. The following examples would generally be regarded as first aid treatment. Note this list is not exhaustive. • • • • • • • • • • • • • Using a non-prescription medication at non-prescription strength (for medications available in both prescription and non-prescription form, a recommendation by a physician or other licensed health care professional to use a non-prescription medication at prescription strength is considered medical treatment for record keeping purposes); Administering tetanus immunisations (other immunisations, such as Hepatitis B vaccine or rabies vaccine, are considered medical treatment ); Cleaning, flushing or soaking wounds on the surface of the skin; Using wound coverings such as bandages, Band -Aid s™, gauze pads, etc. or using butterfly bandages or Ster i-Strips™ (other wound closing devices such as sutures, staples, etc. are considered medical treatment); Using hot or cold therapy; Using any non-rigid means of support, such as elastic bandages, wraps, non-rigid back belts, etc. (devices with rigid stays or other systems designed to immobilise parts of the body are considered medical treatment for record keeping purposes); Drilling of a fingernail or toenail to relieve pressure, or draining fluid from a blister; Using eye patches; Removing foreign bodies from the eye using only irrigation or a cotton swab; Removing splinters or foreign material from areas other than the eye by irrigation, tweezers, cotton swabs or other simple means; Using finger guards; Using massages (physical therapy or chiropractic treatment are considered medical treatment for record keeping purposes); or Drinking fluids for relief of heat stress. Serious Environmental Incident - environmental controls absent or construction of a device is so poor that it is likely to or has led to failure leading to an uncontrolled discharge of sediment off site. Issue by an enforcing authority of an infringement or abatement notice or instigation of legal proceedings in respect of an environmental incident. Service Strikes - contact with an above ground or buried service resulting in damage or potential damage to the service. Property Damage - contact with third party property resulting in damage. Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate - the number of Lost Time Injuries per million man hours worked, calculated on a 12 month rolling basis. Total Recordable Incident Frequency Rate - the number of Recordable Injuries per million man hours worked, calculated on a 12 month rolling basis. NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY 8 Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents Monthly Reporting Definitions - Lead Indicators Drug and Alcohol Tests - the total number of drug and alcohol tests completed in the period including preemployment, post incident, due cause and random testing including subcontract personnel. Positive Drug and Alcohol Tests - the total number of positive drug and alcohol test results in the period. Site Health and Safety Audit - the total number of site health and safety audits completed in the period by the contractors or subcontractors personnel. Safety Briefing - the total number of safety briefings completed in the month including Toolbox Meetings, Task Talks, Safety Alert briefings etc by the site team. Near Miss (Close Call) - the total number of near miss (close call) reports submitted in the month by the site team. Traffic Management Inspection - the total number of traffic management audits completed by the designated Site Traffic Management Supervisor (STMS) or other suitably qualified members of the site team using the On Site Record or Site Condition Rating forms from CoPTTM as appropriate. Safety in Design Workshop - Safety in Design workshop completed in accordance with the Safety in Design Guidelines. Safety in Design Issues Eliminated - number of safety related issues eliminated as part of the design process prior to commencement of procurement of the physical works contract. Subcontractor Review - number of subcontractor reviews completed by the main contractor in the period. Stop Work Action - number of occasions when work is suspended proactively due to a member of the site team identifying an area of safety concern. Positive Reinforcement - the number of occasions the site team have been congratulated for achievement of a proactive action or safety milestone. The following are examples where positive reinforcement would be appropriate. Achievement of a significant LTI free period e.g. 1 year, 2 years etc. NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY 9
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