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Procedure: Work health and safety actions

Purpose

This procedure describes how the Australian National University (ANU) manages corrective and preventative actions for the work health and safety, rehabilitation and claims management systems (WHS). This procedure meets compliance requirements of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth), the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth), the Safety and Rehabilitation Compensation Act 1998 (Cth) and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 (Cth). This procedure is linked to the University’s Work Health and Safety Policy and is one of the WHS Management System Procedures.

Definitions

Corrective actions are actions taken after a situation or exposure has occurred e.g. when an unplanned event, change or incident occurs; or when deficiencies are recognised from audits, inspections and reviews.

Local areas mean Research Schools, Colleges and Divisions of ANU.

Preventative actions are actions that are identified to prevent situations, system deficiency and exposures to hazards e.g. by conducting a hazard review, setting objectives, designing processes, and/or conducting a review.

Workers is anyone who carries out work for the University and include staff, Visiting and Honorary Appointments (VaHA), volunteers, titleholders, affiliates, labour hiring workers, student gaining work experience and contractors of ANU. HDR students may be ANU workers depending on their role, but they are covered under the scope of this Procedure.

The Work Health and Safety Management System (WHSMS) Handbook provides practical guidance for University and its local areas on how to implement the University WHS Management System and defines the responsibilities and actions required by management and workers within the management system.

Procedure

Scope

  1. This procedure applies to all corrective actions identified from WHS processes as per specified in WHSMS Handbook Chapter 4.2.

Identifying actions

  1. All workers at the University report any matter or issue, hazardous situation or WHS management system implementation deficiencies immediately to their supervisor / manager / local management. The supervisor / manager / local management in consultation with the workers identify corrective actions and/or preventive actions to address the issue or concern.
  2. All findings from WHS processes (e.g. investigations, audits, monitoring programs, legal reviews and management reviews) are reported and communicated to the local areas affected as per the WHS communication and consultation procedure. All corrective actions are recorded in Figtree and must be assessed to ensure that they do not create additional risk for the new controls implemented.

Assignment of actions

  1. All actions and completion dates are identified and assigned in consultation the person completing the action and/or their representatives.
  2. All actions are assigned in accordance with their risk and priority (High, Medium and Low) in accordance with the timeframe specified WHSMS Handbook Chapter 4.2 requirements.
  3. Actions arising from internal and external audits must be treated as priority High or Medium and are completed in accordance with WHSMS Handbook Chapter 4.2 requirements.

Responsibilities

  1. The person being assigned the action ensures the action is completed on time or request extension should there be additional resourcing requirements.
  2. Director / General Manager and Chairperson of the WHS Committee are responsible for monitoring all corrective actions assigned to people in their area quarterly and ensure that they are completed in accordance with the priority timeline with no overdue actions at the time of monitoring.
  3. If the corrective actions are also the result of a Notifiable Incident or the result of a direction or notice from a regulator, the Safety and Wellbeing team (S&W) reports the progress to the regulator until completion and verification by the regulator has taken place.

Escalation of actions not completed

  1. Where such action is not taken within these time frames, a process of escalation takes place. The Deputy Chief People Officer (DCPO), S&W seeks the reasons for not addressing the actions from the local area Director or General Manager.
  2. Overdue corrective actions are escalated to the University WHS Committee via a Quarterly Due Diligence Report as per the WHS communication and consultation procedure.

Recording and reporting actions

  1. The local area records all actions in Figtree, have timeframes and resources assigned to each action and report on their progress to their Director / General Manager and the Local WHS Committee.
  2. The local area reports when the actions are completed to the Safety and Wellbeing and to the University WHS Committee if asked to do so.
  3. The DCPO S&W reports overdue corrective actions to the University WHS Committee.

This Procedure is further explained in and supplemented by WHSMS Handbook Chapter 4.2 Corrective Actions.

Sources

Refer to ANU WHS Legal and Other Requirements Matrix.

Information

Printable version (PDF)
Title Work health and safety actions
Document Type Procedure
Document Number ANUP_015810
Version
Purpose This procedure describes how the Australian National University (ANU) manages corrective and preventative actions for the work health and safety, rehabilitation and claims management systems (WHS). This procedure meets compliance requirements of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth), the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth), the Safety and Rehabilitation Compensation Act 1998 (Cth) and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 (Cth). This procedure is linked to the University’s Workplace Health and Safety Policy and is one of the WHS Management System Procedures.
Audience Staff
Category Administrative
Topic/ SubTopic Health, Safety & Environment - Occupational Health & Safety
 
Effective Date 6 Jan 2025
Next Review Date 6 Jan 2026
 
Responsible Officer: Chief People Officer
Approved By: Chief Operating Officer
Contact Area Safety and Wellbeing
Authority: Work Health & Safety Act 2011
Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011
Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988
Delegations 0

Information generated and received by ANU staff in the course of conducting business on behalf of ANU is a record and should be captured by an authorised recordkeeping system. To learn more about University records and recordkeeping practice at ANU, see ANU recordkeeping and Policy: Records and archives management.