UWS Central WHS Committee Meeting Minutes

Meeting Date: 05/09/2013

Time: 10:35am start. Location: Werrington North: WN-AD.G.41-MR2

Attendees

Donald Dinsdag(DD - HAW HSR), Murray Austin(MA - HAW HSR), Michael Lyons (ML - PAR HSR), Tosin Famakinwa (TF - PEN HSR), Victoria Hardy-Crump (VH - CAM HSR), Ann Tout (AT - MGMT), Andrew Robb (AR - Guest), Nicole Roeth (NR - Guest).

Apologies

Peter Pickering (PP - MGMT)

Absent: Terry Mason (TM- BAN HSR)

Minutes Arising

Minutes from last meeting reviewed. Minutes moved as correct by MA and seconded by ML.

Business from Previous Minutes

  1. Chairperson – item completed – Don Dinsdag voted as Chairperson.
  2. Attendance of TM discussed. DD did not receive apologies from TM re today and NR agreed to contact TM to determine if he is able to attend the Central committee meetings or whether an alternate HSR is needed for Bankstown. Email sent by NR to TM on 5/9/13.
  3. WHS Forum was raised. AR discussed tentative plans for a forum hosted by Central committee for all HSRs and committee members to attend. Tentative date is 4th November (STUVAC week) with room bookings at Kingswood campus and confirmations to follow. A morning session (9:30am to 12:30pm with morning tea and lunch included) is being considered. Suggestions for the forum topics to include;

-Brief presentation from each campus committee about their areas of focus, things they have success or difficulty with since formation and any general issues (Q and A session offered)

-Emergency Preparedness with options for presentations/reviews of an upcoming mass casualty training session being run by Adam Byrne (UWS Security) to be reviewed and/or TF suggested a presentation by local emergency (Fire Brigade or Fire Brigade education unit) to focus on emergency awareness and requirements for workplaces.

-Another forum topic suggested was Workplace Bullying/Harassment (by VH). AT suggested that Tatiana Lozano as head of the Work Group on the Workplace Bullying and Harassment for UWS could provide attendees with an update on the strategies and responses being developed at UWS in response to staff survey feedback about bullying/harrassment.

-A presentation by WorkCover on safety culture or the new legislation and practical aspects of consultation was also suggested by ML and MA. AR indicated we would need to indicate a topic and ask about WorkCover availability as WorkCover availability has been an issue in the past.

-DD also suggested he may be able to arrange speakers such as Chris Winder who is an academic with WHS and toxicology background or a Masters candidate who is a fire fighterand several other past students. Both have great WHS background that they could use to do a presentation.

-Agreed to continue discussions/arrangements through emails to Central committee members. WHS team to commence bookings/coordination and advise Central committee members of progress. Email to be sent re arrangements and proposed agenda to all campus committee members.

  1. Relationship between Central and Campus committees was discussed. VH was concerned about some views given by other committee members about the role of HSRs and representation. There was discussion that HSRs were elected to represent those in a work group and that the work groups cover a whole campus location (home campus)- giving broad consultation coverage. There was discussion about the need or otherwise for a formal constitution for the Central committee and ML/TF suggested this level of formality was not needed. It was agreed there are some minimum requirements (such as meeting once every 3 months as a minimum). NR suggested that the Central committee review documents provided in draft on the Consultation webpages ( These need to be distributed through Policy DDS (or otherwise) across the organisation and feedback sought. Central committee to start the review process and send any feedback to . Further discussion about Central committee role and statistics/incident reports. NR has sent each campus committee their own incident stats and some summary data for across the organisation to allow some comparison.

New Business

1.Update from WHS team. Points of update mainly covered above. 1. WHS Forum (see above), 2. Consultation documents and review process (see above). 3. Update on WHS online reporting system – AR. A recent email was sent. Tender process closes tomorrow and then a committee will review the quotes received to short-list the best options against UWS criteria. Request for a member from each committee to then come forward to assist in the review of scenarios and demonstrations to determine the most effective system to purchase for UWS. ML asked about testing and AR advised testing was part of the requirements prior to purchase. AR will provide further updatesas system acquisition develops.

2.ML asked about having an alternate HSR attend if/wheneach Central committee member is unavailable. It was agreed that any member can arrange a replacement HSR (from their campus) to attend the Central committee if they are unavailable for a meeting.

3.Duplication of committee activities between campus and central committees was discussed. Discussion of the incident stats and areas of priority. AR advised the current reporting process is very labour intensive and the new online system will make all forms of reporting much easier. The need to encourage reporting in general and near miss reporting was raised by VH and AR. The need for Central committee to focus on issues through the use of a 5 minute presentation about their campus committee and areas of focus/interest and incident stats from their campus was suggested by MA and TF. Brief presentations to be considered for next meeting.

4.Ongoing meeting schedule was discussed. Agreed 1 meeting before end of 2013 and proposed Tues 26th Nov 10:30am. WHS unit will make bookings and send invites for this meeting. Aim to book 4 meeting dates/times for 2014 now. Aim to meet in same location due to ease of parking and central for most members.

Close 10.40am

Next Meeting: 26/11/13 from 10:30am. WHS Unit to confirm location details and send invite

Note: HSR = Health and Safety Representative, MGMT = Management Representative