Achieving the vision for health, safety and injury management in public sector workplaces

The State Government has a clear vision for the Western Australian public sector where:

workplaces are mentally and physically healthy environments with positive and consultative safety cultures
workplace health, safety and injury management follows leading practice principles
national targets for health and safety performance and injury management are achieved for the sector.

The Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022 sets three national targets to be achieved by 2022:

A reduction in the number of worker fatalities due to injury of at least 20%.
A reduction in the incidence rate of claims resulting in one or more weeks off work of at least 30%.
A reduction in the incidence rate of claims for musculoskeletal disorders resulting in one or more weeks off work of at least 30%.

Public sector agencies that improve their workplace health, safety and injury management performance benefit from:

higher employee retention rates
enhanced organisational profile
increased employee morale
improved health and wellness
decreased absenteeism
reduced expenditure on and prevention of the further escalation of workers' compensation costs.

The Advisory Committee includes representation from the key public sector agencies and UnionsWA, and is chaired by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.

Membership

As at July 2022, the Advisory Committee comprises the leaders of the key agencies involved in workplace health, safety and injury management, and three UnionsWA representatives:

Richard Sellers – Director General, Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (Chair)
Sue Martins – Public Sector Commission
Chris White – WorkCover WA
Janice Gardner – Insurance Commission of WA
Andrea Manly – Mental Health Commission
Antony Pearson – State School Teachers Union of WA
Debbie Larson – Community and Public Sector Union, Civil Service Association
Adrian Barratt – Health Services Union

Focus of activities

The Advisory Committee identified the following key areas for attention in the WA public sector:

provide support to agencies to achieve compliance with new legislation
provide direction to agencies to finalise and publish their workplace health and safety commitment statements
consider the future of the existing code of practice for occupational safety and health in the Western Australian public sector
preventative measures to reduce psychological injuries; strategies to reduce lost time off work; and mechanisms to prevent musculoskeletal injuries in the workplace
measures to identify, record and reduce prevalence of workplace assault and violence
approaches to capture relevant and richer data by improving sector-wide procedures for reporting hazards and incidents/accidents, including ways to bring uniformity in the nature of data capture

Agencies must comply with the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 and Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981, and other related legislation.

A committed leadership is key to promoting workplace health and safety matters, and achieving improvements in performance and injury management.

Leaders play a critical role in positively influencing workplace culture, management practices, and the experiences of their workforce. They should encourage and support effective consultation to improve health and safety outcomes in their workplaces. Visible involvement by the leadership signals the importance of being safe and healthy at work, and encourages workers to engage in positive practices.

All public sector leaders are expected to make a public commitment by outlining the actions their agency is taking to promote and support workplace health and safety.

Key dates such as World Day for Health and Safety at Work and Workers’ Memorial Day in April, and National Safe Work Month in October, can be used to reiterate the agency’s commitment and promote workplace health and safety activities.

A sample statement of commitment is available to assist agencies creating or reviewing their commitment statements.

Listed below are some useful resources on the importance of leadership to an agency's workplace culture: