Legal requirements

Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1985 (the Act) and the Regulations from this Act, the University has a legal requirement to consult with all employees on matters that affect health and safety in the workplace.

Designated work groups

Employees may ask for the establishment of a designated work group (DWG) in a workplace. These can be either based on common occupations or geography. The University has examples both, with groups of animal technicians across the Faculties of Science, Medicine, Veterinary Science and Agriculture, and groups formed on a building, department or school basis, eg The School of Chemistry.

Health and safety respresentatives

Each DWG elects an Occupational Health and Safety Representative (HSR) through a formal election process administered by the Registrars office. The elections occur every 4 years or whenever a casual vacancy occurs.

The HSR has formal powers and rights under the Act and is the formal conduit for day to day negotiations on the notification and resolution of all OH&S issues in a department. The HSR for Chemistry is Jenny Scott.

EH&S committees

The Act also sets out the structure and functions of EH&S committees and the number of times it must meet in a year.

The University has a central EH&S committee which determines policy, that reports to the Administration committee and via this committee at Deputy Vice Chancellor level to the University Council.

The School of Chemistry has its own EH&S committee. A list of representatives is posted on the Safety notice board near the main entrance, Level 1 of the Old Chemistry Building and on the EH&S page of the Chemistry website. Minutes of these meetings are also available at these locations.

Emergency contacts

Emergency contacts are listed on page 7 of the School’s Safety manual (PDF) and stickers with the updated emergency services, security and hospital phone numbers should be placed on all phones. If not, they are available from the School's Safety officer.

Emergency procedures and first aid

Emergency procedures are detailed in the School's Safety manual (PDF), but the basic procedure in an emergency (fire, major chemical spill, etc) is to activate the fire alarm and evacuate the building. This is practiced at least once a year and we also have the odd false alarm during the year.

A list of floor wardens and their area of responsibility and relevant evacuation routes is available on all notice boards in the School and in the Safety manual. A list of staff trained in First aid is also available on all noticeboards and in the Safety manual.

Plant and equipment

Lock out procedures, permit to work and tag procedures are an administrative means of controlling the use of plant and equipment.

If you see a switch, powerlead or control with a "Danger do not use" tag, it means the equipment has been "tagged out" of service by a maintenance or service technician, staff member or student. It should not be used until ALL such tags are removed.

It is the person with the authorised signature to the account/s to be charged on a requisition form that has the responsibility to ensure that all goods and services purchased meet EH&S requirements and that (where appropriate) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is on hand for use with the equipment, chemical, etc purchased.

Where a purchase order is placed for servicing of plant or equipment, the person placing the request should be able to verify and document that the person/company is trained or competent to carry out the required work. Examples of this would be NATA registration, Aust. Standard 3000 or ISO 9000 quality management series accreditation or compliance with a particular Aust. Standard.

The School Safety manual is available in PDF format. It contains more detailed information on most of the above topics and other specific information. This is most up to date version of the safety manual. If you require a new hard copy of the manual contact Esther Mcconnell on (+613) 8344 4027.