The Evidence is there...learn from your mistakes or pay the price.
Updated: Aug 21, 2020
This Work Health and Safety prosecution highlights the perils of not learning from your mistakes. This family run business had a serious injury arise from their work, where they were fined in the first instance, a hefty $50,000, with no conviction recorded. When another incident occurred from the SAME WORK less than two years later, resulting in more injuries the judgement was far harsher. A conviction was recorded and the fine doubled to $110,000. After the first instance improvements were put in place, but they weren't being used when the second incident occurred.
It's important to learn from your mistakes. Not only do you need to implement controls to ensure an incident doesn't happen again, but knowing the risk involved you need processes in place to monitor and review those controls.
Your monitoring and review processes should focus on those high risk controls and ensure they are still being implemented and they are effectively controlling your risks.
Some common ways to monitor can include:
Internal Audits,
Regular supervision,
Inspections and checklists,
Regular communications with your teams to discuss important risk controls and understand why they may/may not be working, and
Formal review of risk assessments and risk registers.
Whichever mode you choose, ensure the workers who perform the work are involved. Keep an open mind and be prepared for complaints or suggestions. You really don't want history repeating itself.
Photo by Orane Thomas on Unsplash