Guidance for public sector health, safety and injury management

WorkSafe WA  has a range of information and guidance to help organisations make informed decisions about their regulatory obligations including:

• Codes of practice
• SafetyLine
• Guidance notes, safety alerts and bulletins 
• Templates
• WorkSafe plan

WorkSafe WA

WorkSafe operates, provides information and supports a variety of community education and outreach programs. Learn more about how WorkSafe's initiatives can assist in creating a safe and healthy work environment.

WorkSafe holds lunchtime information sessions throughout the metropolitan area. These sessions are free of charge and cover a range of  work health and safety  topics. To find out more about the lunchtime information sessions and other WorkSafe events and activities visit the events page of the WorkSafe website.

WorkSafe provides several online resources including the ThinkSafe magazine, SmartMove and the WorkSafe library resources. Publications including Codes of Practice, Guidance Notes, bulletins, fact sheets, safety and health alerts, booklets, brochures, guides and information sheets that can be downloaded.

The WorkSafe Plan is also available on the website. The WorkSafe Plan is an assessment process that rates work health and safety management systems and directs attention to areas that could be improved. The WorkSafe Plan is not intended to prescribe how to manage safety and health, but to provide a systemic way of measuring how well it is being managed.

WorkSafe works with the persons conducting business undertaking, officers, workers and their representatives to set up and maintain systems of work so that workers are not exposed to hazards. WorkSafe has seven safety priorities: mobile plant; manual tasks (particularly lifting); electricity; work at heights; slips, trips and falls; hazardous substances and machine guarding.

WorkCover WA

WorkCover WA holds information sessions on injury management and workers' compensation. WorkCover WA's training and events calendar provides a comprehensive list of relevant workers' compensation and injury management training and events.

Visit or contact WorkCover WA for information on injury management:

WorkCover WA's website contains a wide range of publications, resources and forms to support workers’ compensation and injury management.

WorkCover WA's Advice and Assistance service, available by phoning 1300 794 744, consists of Advisory Officers who can provide guidance and assistance to all parties within the workers’ compensation system.

WorkCover WA has a number of useful resources on its website to assist service providers and health providers. Please click on the relevant link below to access the required information.

• Publications for health providers
• Publications for service providers
• Worker publications
• Employer publications

Insurance Commission of Western Australia

Insurance Commission of Western Australia is a statutory corporation and Government Trading Enterprise owned by the Western Australian Government. They are the State’s insurer providing injury insurance to motorists and self-insurance to Government.

They focus on delivering efficient and equitable insurance services to WA motorists and Government authorities.

Along with providing motor vehicle injury insurance for over 1 million drivers and over 2 million vehicles in Western Australia, the Insurance Commission of Western Australia covers over 169 Western Australian public authorities for workers' compensation, property and liability.

Visit www.icwa.wa.gov.au/home for more information or www.icwa.wa.gov.au/about-us/news-and-publications to access the available resources.

You may further wish to contact them on 9264 3333 to talk to an officer from Insurance Commission of Western Australia for more information on:

Mental Health Commission

The Mental Health Commission produces a range of reports and resources to help inform and educate the community and the mental health, alcohol and other drug workforce.

Visit their website on www.mhc.wa.gov.au/reports-and-resources/ to access the resources.

Safe Work Australia is an Australian statutory body established in 2008 to develop national policy relating to WHS and workers’ compensation.

• training
• workshop facilitation
• draft policies and procedures
• consultancy in a range of related areas
• Mental Health Commission

Consultation is emphasised in the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 with an obligation placed on the person conducting business or undertaking, or officer to consult workers and health and safety representatives (if any) on safety and health at the workplace.

To complement this, employees also have a duty to cooperate with their employer on safety and health matters at their workplace.

Listed below are some more guidance materials on consultation at workplace:

Guidance note - Code of Practice - Work health and safety consultation, corporation and coordination, issued by the WHS Commission provides practical guidance on how to effectively consult with workers who carry out work for the business or undertaking and who are (or are likely to be) directly affected by a health and safety matter. It includes information on mechanisms to facilitate worker participation and representation.

Code of Practice – Occupational Safety and Health in the WA public sector (PDF), published by the Commission for Occupational Safety and Health, Western Australia.

Code of Practice: Occupational Health and Safety Consultation, Co-operation and Co-ordination (PDF), published by SafeWork New South Wales.

Further resources can be obtained on the WorkSafe WA website. 

Health and safety representatives

Health and safety representatives are an effective workplace mechanism for providing participation and improved consultation between persons conducting business undertakings and workers.

Health and safety representatives are not the same as health and safety officers or coordinators and are not responsible for solving health and safety matters in the workplace.

Election of health and safety representatives

A person conducting business undertakings or worker can start the process to elect health and safety representatives. Refer to the flowchart (PDF) for guidance on the election process.

Consultation must take place between the employer and the delegate(s) on:

• number of safety representatives to be elected;
• matters, areas or kinds of work each health and safety representative is to cover;
• who will run the election;
• how vacancies will be dealt with; and
• matters to do with a scheme (if required).

Mentally healthy workplaces and psychosocial risk factors

The Work Health and Safety Commission has developed codes of practice which focus on different areas where psychosocial as well physical harms may be experienced in a workplace.

• Mentally healthy workplaces
• Psychologically Safe and Inclusive Workplaces - a guide for public sector agencies
• People at Work
• Thrive at work
• Mentally healthy workplaces codes of practice
• Violence and aggression at work
• Workplace behaviour - WHS code of practice
• Psychosocial hazards in the workplace - WHS code of practice
• Mentally healthy workplaces for fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers in the resources and construction sectors

The functions of a safety and health committee are to:

• enable and assist consultation and cooperation between person conducting business and workers
• help to initiate, develop and implement safety and health measures
• keep informed about safety and health standards in similar workplaces
• make recommendations on safety and health rules, programs, measures and procedures
• ensure information on hazards is kept where it is readily accessible
• consider and make recommendations about changes that may affect the safety and health of workers consider matters referred to it by safety and health representatives
• perform other functions prescribed in the regulations or given to the committee, with its consent, by the employer.

Visit the WorkSafe WA website for more information on safety and health committees.

WorkCover WA has a number of useful workers' compensation and injury management publications and forms on its website to assist service and health providers including:

• Dispute resolution
• Employers
• Health providers
• Injury management
• Service providers
• Workers
   

ICWA has a range of information and guidance to help WA government agencies manage injuries and risk to the agency; and assist in reducing the incident, severity and financial impact of adverse events.

The Mental Health Commission produces a range of reports and resources to help inform and educate organisations about mental health, alcohol and other drugs.

The Safe Work Australia website contains a range of education and communication resources to support improvements in work health and safety outcomes and workers’ compensation arrangements.

• Department of Health
• WorkSafe WA
• Thrive at Work
• Safe Work Australia

The functions of a safety and health committee are to:

• enable and assist consultation and cooperation between employers and workers
• help to initiate, develop and implement safety and health measures
• keep informed about safety and health standards in similar workplaces
• make recommendations on safety and health rules, programs, measures and procedures
• ensure information on hazards is kept where it is readily accessible
• consider and make recommendations about changes that may affect the safety and health of workers consider matters referred to it by safety and health representatives
• perform other functions prescribed in the regulations or given to the committee, with its consent, by the employer.

Visit the WorkSafe WA website for more information on safety and health committees.