NGMW314

Individual / Organisation name: Allan Johansson

What state/territory:

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 / I find it extremely important to retain hatchmen under the codes of practice, or where is our safety going to?
To preserve a few dollars in exchange potentially of a person’s life is abhorrent to me and I would say to the generally concerned population of workers.
If we were to follow this path initially of exchanging safety for profit where will we end up?
It is generally thought by the employers that human error is the main reason for accidents but when you remove certain barriers like as hatchmen in increments everybody’s safety on that job has been affected and one day the result could be of horrendous consequences.
Where I work now we spend some of our time trying to improve our safety...... putting in more barriers...... not reducing them. We would all like to see our families at the end of our shift or time on board, not for them to hear the painful news of a terrible accident.
I fully support the retention of the hatchmen in their job providing a safer work environment for all concerned. yours fraternally, Allan Johansson
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?
We pride ourselves as being part of the most skills trained workforce in the world and it is essential we keep this as an integral part of our workforce. The new code of practice should refer to these skills and qualifications for stevedores as we should always strive to keep our workforce as the most trained in the world and to not let it degrade to a shabby untrained bunch of labourers that the employers would like to exercise as profit over skill and safety. I find it extremely important to have only the highest qualified and trained workforce doing the jobs required and by implementing skills in new workplace agreements would go a long way to stave off mediocrity in our jobs. yours fraternally Allan Johansson
Safety Induction skill-set / Should the newly developed stevedoring ‘safety skill-set’ be used to underpin safety inductions?
I believe that appropriate induction and training is an essential part of all workforces and should be an integral part of any newly employed trainees.
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?
An essential part of any safe work environment is increasing where needed the checks on each individual job not decreasing as removal of barriers could only endanger a job or operation in process. So checklists should obviously be retained to keep safety at a premium.
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
Safety is and always should be of premium importance to the worker, the employer or the general populace. Without it there is no community.