Asset Liability Manual

ASSET LIABILITY MANUAL

for

XXXXXXXXX

Table of Contents

Foreward......

Section 1 Introduction......

Section 2 Policy

Section 3Overview of Statutory Obligations

Section 4Overview Of Public Safety......

Section 5Centre Manager’s Asset Liability Checklist......

Section 6Responsibilities......

Section 7 Accountability......

Section 8 Hazard Identification And Control......

Section 9 Emergency Planning......

Section 10 Staff Training......

Section 11 Dealing With Contractors......

Section 12 Dealing With Tenants......

Section 13 Dealing With Trauma......

Section 14 Injury Care......

Section 15 Incident Reporting......

Section 16 Accident Investigation......

Section 17 Claims Analysis & Control......

Appendices

Appendix I / Case Study / Appendix VIII / OHS&E Correction Action Request
Appendix II / Essential Service/Security
Shut-Down / Appendix IX / Display Safety Checklist
Appendix III / Site Inspection Checklist & Action List / Appendix X / Public Liability Incident Report Form
Appendix IV / Staff Training Requirements / Appendix XI / Accident/Investigation Report
Appendix V / Risk Management Plan / Appendix XII / Slip/Trip Information
Appendix VI / Site Safety Instructions / Appendix XIII / Accident Investigation – Support Material
Appendix VII / Service Compliance Letter / Appendix XIV / Coping with Disaster & Trauma – Support Material

Page 1
Asset Liability Manual©

Foreward

xxxxxxxxxxxxx recognises its responsibility to provide, maintain and seek to improve health and safety standards in the buildings they manage.

This manual is designed to set guidelines at achieving the following objectives:

1.To provide a safe environment for all occupiers of the Centre.

2.Identify potential risks involved and establish management procedures to remove or minimise the likelihood of an accident occurring.

3.To ensure that those concerned are aware of and accept responsibility for the implementation of accident and safety procedures.

4.To provide such guidelines and training that all employees are better able to recognise and understand the associated risks.

5.To ensure that all employees comply with recommended "Asset Liability Procedures".

The manual is to be used by the Centre Manager as a tool to help create and maintain a safe and healthy environment. It is in a loose leaf and electronic format and is to be an expandable document, as other items of health and safety become apparent and these can be added to the document.

Section 1Introduction

xxxxxxxxxxxx recognises its responsibility to provide, maintain and seek to improve standards of health and safety for the public, contractors and its employees in the buildings and systems which the organisation manages.

Many Public Liability and Occupational Health & Safety risks overlap, with the general public and workers usually being exposed to the same hazards, although the extent of exposure may vary. Accordingly, it makes good sense to consider Health, Safety and Environment as a whole system and to identify the common areas that need to be addressed in any comprehensive Safety and Risk management programme. Integrating O.H.S & E as part of a Quality Management system can also be highly cost effective, saving large amounts of time, resources and of course money.

Generally, the risks to human health and safety can result from all the various activities undertaken at the Centre, but vary with exposure. An example of this may be exposure to noise or carbon monoxide emissions. In some situations, occupational exposure is greater than non-occupational exposure. In other cases, the reverse can be true.

In all cases, it makes good sense to evaluate both the occupational and the non-occupational risk and implement cost effective risk management strategies designed to control all of the risks and minimise the potential effect on the population as a whole.

This manual is designed as a set of guidelines and is to be used by the Centre Manager as a tool to help create and maintain a safe and healthy environment.

The manual is in loose leaf and electronic format and is to be an expandable document, as other items of health and safety become apparent and these can be added to the document.

Section 2Policy

Purpose

As with any other area of management, Asset Liability should have as its starting point, a statement indicating the general objections to be achieved. The emphasis of Asset Liability is to ensure that all aspects of liability associated with the building are being managed in accordance with both Corporate and Legal requirements in mind.

The site Policy should be written as a site specific document while at the same time reflecting Corporate Policy. The site Policy should where possible, be developed
co-operatively with staff, be signed and dated by the Centre or Building Manager and should be on display in the Management Office.

Required Action

1. The Centre Manager should, in consultation with staff, prepare an OHS&R Policy statement that reflects the Corporate OHS&R policy.
2. The Centre Manager should offer acceptance, sign and date the OHS&R Policy.
3. The Centre Manager should ensure that the Policy is on display in the Centre Management office.
4. The Centre Manager should review and reissue the Policy every two years or when there is a change of Centre Manager.

Section 3Overview of Statutory Obligations

As Building Managers reviewing the operations of your sites for the owners, circumstances will arise when there is a need to determine if a situation complies with relevant legislative requirements (including regulations), Codes of Practice and even Australian Standards. This section does not set out to make you a legal expert, but simply to give a basic background and some explanation of the more commonly used legal issues that can arise on site. The section also gives a basic introduction to the State Authority responsible for enforcement and the role of the inspectors.

The Legal Requirements of the Workplace

A major and growing issue for the workplace, is that of Occupational Health & Safety and how it relates to the reduction of illness and injury. As with many other walks of life, the law of the land places significant obligations on various participating parties.

Among the questions which are raised, are:

Who is responsible for preventing injury and illness in the workplace?

How should these responsibilities be fulfilled?

These questions can be resolved by looking at your State’s Occupational Health & Safety Act and its regulations followed by the more broad common law duty of care as it applies in your State. In both of these areas there are now well established principles which employers and their managers and supervisors should be aware of and which are aimed at minimising risks.

Occupational Health & Safety Legislation

Primarily a state responsibility, health and safety legislation covers the responsibilities of employers and employees as well as their rights. Further to that, it influences relationships with visitors or third parties and hence, has a relationship in turn to common law requirements. Further to that it also legislates and regulates the operation of workplace health and safety committees.

The Legal System

In general the State legal system as it relates to Occupational Health and Safety depends on a range of legal structures. These are as follows:

Acts

Regulations

Codes of Practice

Australian Standards

Common Law Systems

Acts and Regulations are written documents which are developed within State Government Jurisdictions and are generally enforced by State Authorities. In the case of Occupational Health & Safety for example, the authority which undertakes this role in NSW is the WorkCover Authority. Through its inspectorial staff the authority has the responsibility to ensure that all employers and employees and other interested parties comply with the relevant requirements of the legislation which applies to Occupational Health & Safety. Breaches of this legislation will bring significant penalties under the Act.

For example in the case of NSW the Occupational Health & Safety Act and its regulations carry penalties and fines which are as follows:

On the spot fines which include $50 fines for employees and up to $500 fines for employers.

Prosecutions which include up to $3000 for employees, $55,000 for self employed or owner/operators and for Line Managers and Supervisors and up to $550,000 fines for Corporate entities. (There is provision for $750,000 fines for repeated offences and up to 2 year jail sentences in these circumstances).

(Note: Similar penalty structures exist in other States and Territories)

In the case of Codes of Practice and Australian Standards, in general these have no real force in law unless they are called up in specific Act or regulation. However, in cases where this doesn’t occur it is possible that the State Authority could in launching a prosecution, use a relevant code or standard in proving that a breach of legislation has occurred. If the court can be satisfied that the organisation was aware of the Code or Standard or should have been aware of the Code or Standard as applied to their industry and failed to use that Code or Standard, this may prove to be establishing fact or guilt for a breach of the legislation.

An example of where this is applied was in the Victorian Jurisdiction where a breach of the Act was layed against the State Rail Authority involving a case where an employee in a rail yard was critically injured when attempting to move a bundle of steel rod on a flat top railway truck. When using a pinch bar to move the material, the material became unstable, knocked him from the truck and rolled off the truck and onto the employee, critically injuring him. On investigating the breach the State Authority used the Code of Practice on Manual Handling to establish that the State Rail Authority had not carried out a manually handling assessment of this task and as a result had not taken appropriate control measures to minimise the risk of such an accident and injury and as a result was found in breach of the Victorian Legislation.

In the case of Common Law systems the similarities between the requirements both under Occupational Health & Safety Legislation and that required by Common Law Duty of Care are extremely close. As a result the burden of proof and the requirements for an adequate defence under both systems are almost identical. (see Section 4 – Overview of Public Safety)

Occupational Health & Safety Legislation

In the following notes where the reference is made to the responsibilities of the employer, this could apply both to Contractors and their relationship with their staff as well as your relationship both to your own staff and potentially to that of the Contractors.

General Obligations to Employees

Generally, OH&S Acts indicate that the employer shall ensure the health, safety and welfare of all employees at the place of work. On reading this information the 2 important issues are firstly that the employer here can represent both the corporate structure as well as the individual representatives of line management in that corporate structure. That is where an obligation is stated you can apply this both to the corporate entity as well as the individual Line Managers and Supervisors. Further to that the words ‘shall ensure’ indicate that this section of the Act is what is referred to as an obsolute duty. That is, in general, the full responsibility for health, safety and welfare at work applies to the employer.

The Act goes on to describe how this should be undertaken.

Safe plant, the tools and equipment that employees use need to be the correct ones for the job, used in a correct manner and be well maintained usually to manufacturers specifications.

Safe systems of work, requires that the procedure or method which should be supplied by the employer should be the safe and correct method and that having instructed employees in this method the employer should maintain that system or procedure through an appropriate counselling and disciplinary process.

Plant and substances, should be handled, used, stored, labelled or transported in a safe and healthy manner and this should be organised by the employer.

Information, relevant to the health and safety of employees should be made available by the employer and as above should apply to plant, equipment and substances in the workplace.

Instruction and training, should be supplied by the employer to the employees to ensure that work is carried out in a safe manner and that employees are fully aware of the methods and procedures to be undertaken and that ideally this training should be structured training with competency assessment on its completion.

Housekeeping, should be enforced by the employer to ensure that the workplace is maintained in a condition that is safe and without risk to health and that proper access and egress to all parts of the workplace are such that it can be undertaken safely by the employee, including such issues as evacuation procedure in the case of an emergency.

Welfare, is an issue which needs to be addressed by employers and may for example include such issues as post trauma counselling for individuals who are exposed to extreme circumstances as a result of an accident or some other major down grading event.

General Obligations to Visitors

Generally, OH&S Acts require that every employer shall ensure that persons not in the employers employment are not exposed to risks to their health and safety arising from the conduct of that undertaking.

Quite clearly, this involves the exposure of third parties to the operations which are under way. Examples of this could be circumstances where work is undertaken immediately adjacent to visitors and where that work potentially places the health and safety of visitors in that area at risk.

It must also be stated that persons not in the employers employment could also apply to that of contractor employees working in the environment supplied by the Building Management.

General Obligations of People in Control

Generally, OH&S Acts take us into the area involving persons in control at workplaces, and plant and substances used by non-employees.

The first obligation generally indicates that each person who has to any extent control of a non-domestic premises made available to persons other than the direct employees as a place of work, or any plant or substance in that workplace which has been provided for the use or operations of persons at that workplace who are not employed by the employer, shall ensure that the premises, the means of access thereto or egress therefrom the plant or substance in question, are safe and without risk to health.

(Note: An example here is the death of a child in side tenancy at Carlingford Court. The tenant was breached by the State Authority for the death as was Centre Management.)

The second major issue is that involving contracts or leases. In this area it indicates that a person who has by virtue of any contract or lease an obligation of any extent in relation to the safety or the absence of risk to health arising from any plant or substance, that person shall be treated for the purposes of the Act as being a person who has control of the thing to which the obligation extends.

In general, what both of the areas could mean is that the Building Management and more particularly its Line Managers or Supervisors who have control of specific site workplaces in the first instance, clearly have an obligation for their own employees, as well as other people who use that workplace as their workplace but are not employees. Finally, employees of Contractors, would likely be deemed as a potential responsibility of the Building Management.

General Obligations on Suppliers

Generally, OH&S Acts place obligations on manufacturers and suppliers etc to ensure the health and safety as regards plant and substances for use at work. Although probably unlikely to place an ownerous obligation on the Building Management, it is important for staff to be aware that any plant or substances which are supplied to the organisation have to be supplied by the person who manufactures or supplies that plant or substance, in such a manner that they are safe and without risk to health when properly used, that appropriate technical research and testing has been carried out on those items, and that appropriate information on that plant or substances has been supplied with the item in question.

Examples of these circumstances could be plant manuals and service documents or alternatively the supply of material safety data sheets with respect to substances used in the workplace.

General Obligations on Employees

Generally, OH&S Acts place obligations on employees at work to take care of others and to cooperate with their employer. It is essential that management ensure that all employees are aware of their obligations under the Act.

The first of those is that the employee shall take reasonable care for the health and safety of person who are at his or her place of work and who may be affected by his or her acts or omissions at work. The second obligation is that the employee must cooperate with the employer or any other person so far as is necessary when there is an obligation placed on the employer or that other person for health and safety requirements by or under this Act.

Defences Under Legislation

Generally, OH&S Acts include the defences available and raise the issue of reasonable practicability. The defences here are similar to that which apply under common law.

When looking at the question of what is reasonably practicable one needs to understand that it is not possible to make the workplace 100% guaranteed safe. However, what the courts do require is that corporations or individuals are able to show that they used all due diligence to apply a reasonably, practicable standard with which to ensure the accident could not happen. By definition this potentially means that in some circumstances even with the best will in the world it may be possible for an accident still to have occurred but as long as the organisation or person can demonstrate that they have done everything that is reasonably practicable to prevent that accident, then it is likely that an offence would not be found.