Toolbox Talk: What is a critical risk?
Reviewing critical risks is a Safety Charter commitment. It is up to everyone on site to understand all critical risk activities and that they are identified, managed and mitigated.
Introduction
A construction site is a hazardous place with opportunities for something to go wrong. By being attentive about the critical risks around you can help.
A risk-based approach is a key part of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. The Safety Charter has identified a number of critical risks, providing toolbox talks to assist you and your workers, in addition to a number of topical toolbox talks. (Teal denotes topical, Purple denotes Critical Risk)
As part of managing the health and safety of your business, you must control the risks in your workplace. To do this you need to think about what might cause harm to your workers and decide whether you are doing enough to prevent that.
Risk assessment is about identifying and taking sensible and proportionate measures to control the risks in your workplace. It is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork.
You are probably already taking steps to protect your workers. Your risk assessments will help you decide whether you should be doing more. Think about how accidents and ill health could happen and concentrate on real risks – those that are most likely and which will cause the most harm.
Some risks require regulated control measures, (e.g. Remote or isolated workers, raised objects, containers of liquids). Your risk assessment will help you identify when you need particular controls measure in place.
For further information, refer to Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016 and Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995.
You may have other critical risks on your site that will need to be managed. Some of these risks may be particularly hazardous and may need to be notified to WorkSafe NZ. You can do this online:
http://worksafe.govt.nz/notifications/report-scheduled-or-completed-work/hazardous-work/
Definitions
Risk means “a situation involving exposure to danger”.
Critical risk stems from activities regularly undertaken by a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) that, if not adequately controlled, could result in a significant injury or fatality.
IDENTIFY the hazard
- Go on regular walk-through inspections of your workplace to identify all potential hazards and the best ways to eliminate or reduce risk
- Make sure you are aware of any new high-risk activities, machinery or work processes.
- Make note of other contractors on site and what work they are doing
- Health risks are not always immediately obvious. Some are only discovered over time. Such as illnesses caused by exposure to certain chemicals, so consider whether these are a hazard.
- Write everything down in a site-specific safety plan for each worksite.
ASSESS the danger
After you've made your list of possible hazards you need to make a judgment about the risk posed by each hazard.
- Take a close look at each item on your list. What is the possible outcome if things were to go wrong?
- Think about the likelihood of the hazard occurring.
Once you have worked out which hazards present critical risk, mark them as high priority.
MANAGE the risk
Critical risks are often areas of work which are unavoidable. If you can't remove the risk, you need to ensure you can adequately control it and work with it safely.
Take action to highlight and resolve health and safety issues as soon as possible. This includes escalating an issue to more senior management if necessary. Once agreement is reached on how to fix a problem, implement it as soon as possible.
You might have to alter the way jobs are done, change work procedures, or wear protective equipment. Most importantly, you and everyone on site, need to be aware of the processes in place to manage the risk.
It's essential to look after each other on the job. Pause and plan the work before starting, intervene or speak up if you see something dangerous or not right, and report any incidents or near misses.
Review risk controls regularly
Critical risks on site can change constantly. Make sure you regularly review the effectiveness of the risk control by following the steps above: Identify, Assess, and Manage. I AM safe.
Involve your workers
You must, so far as is reasonably practicable, engage with your workers, including health and safety representatives, on matters that affect them. This includes assessing work risks and making decisions about how to manage those risks.
Keep written records
It is not about creating loads of paperwork: It is good practice to keep written records.
For low-risk work, records can be simple such as making notes in a notebook. You could note the main points about the risks you identified and what you decided to do. More risky work would require more complex records.
However, just because something is a common practice doesn't mean that it's the most reasonably practicable option. You should focus on the most effective control measures for your circumstances.
Q and A
Here's an opportunity to discuss your company's approach to critical risks. Ask your team:
- How do you identify all the critical risks on site?
- Whose responsibility is this?
- What are our policies and procedures to manage critical risks?
- Check if there are widely used control measures (e.g. industry standards) for the risk.