NGMW312

Individual / Organisation name: Jane Hyslop

What state/territory: NSW

Review of the National Guidance Material for Working Safely on the Waterfront

Public Comment Response Form

Complete and submit this form by 5pm AEST friDAY 10 AUGUSt 2012 to

Comments on content of the national guidance material
Section/page no. / Comment
Comments on additional issues identified in section 4.2 of the Discussion Paper
Section/page no. / Comment
Hatchmen / The role of hatchman is of the utmost importance, it is worrying to me that stevedoring companies are pushing for cost cutting over fundamental safety needs. So many variables can occur in ships, most which have no real regulations due to FOC issues, but also the nature of transporting goods many which are hazardous and can become unstable and dangerous over long distances. This is why we need an experienced hatchman on the job to protect us all. I think that safety regulations should never be put under pressure from stevedoring owners which now range from US based private equity banks and other large multinationals, these companies are driven by a race for never ending profits which should never be the organisers of safety regulation. We can see what happens in similar situation of profit over common sense and decent safety standards by looking at the recent deaths in the Pearl industry.
Jane Hyslop
Stevedoring qualifications / Should the guidance material refer to the qualifications (Cert II, Cert III and Cert IV in Stevedoring) that have been developed for the stevedoring industry?
As a stevedore working on the waterfront I think this would be a great step forward, it provides a framework and some transparency and more responsibility on employers to do the right thing and to do it fairly. Training is an important issue that contributes to safety and large stevedoring companies often use training accessibility for punitive purposes.
Safety Induction skill-set / Should the newly developed stevedoring ‘safety skill-set’ be used to underpin safety inductions?
The idea of having appropriate guidance material set out for the induction of new workers sounds great. I agree that this is a crucial step in building safety.
Use of checklists / Should the safety checklists, which set out examples of the types of hazards, and acceptable/unacceptable ways of handling those hazards, be maintained in the guidance material?
Specific checklist sound to me like a safe sensible and cautious way to proceed in a workplace where there are many potential hazards. It seems irresponsible for stevedoring companies to want to generalise these things.
Comments on the implementation of the national guidance material in each jurisdiction which may have included launches, information and training sessions, and whether it has been useful in the workplace as a resource for improving safety practices.
Section/page no. / Comment
Other comments