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  Best Events Catering     Workplace Health and Safety Policy and Procedures     Purpose This policy applies to all workers at Best Events C...

 Best Events Catering 

 

Workplace Health and Safety Policy and Procedures

 

 

Purpose

This policy applies to all workers at Best Events Catering. 

To outline the necessary steps taken to ensure the continued safety of the work environment for all staff, contractors, visitors, participants in our events and others. 

All employees and contractors, as well as Best Events Catering, are responsible for ensuring a healthy and safe workplace.

 

 

Definitions

A hazard is any potentially dangerous situation within the work environment.

Incident means an event or circumstance that leads – or could have lead - to unintended or unnecessary harm during a person’s participation in work with Best Events Catering. 

An injury is any incident that causes harm to a person during their participation in work activities with Best Events Catering.

WHS communication and consultation means sharing information, giving workers a reasonable opportunity to express views, and taking those views into account before making decisions on health and safety matters

Duty Holders refers to any person who owes a work health and safety duty under the WHS Act including a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), designer, manufacturer, importer, supplier, installer of products or plant used at work (upstream dutyholders), an officer and workers. 

PCBU the principal duty holder under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) is a ‘person conducting a business or undertaking’ (PCBU). This is Best Events Catering.

Officer Responsible officers are the CEO and Operations Manager. Officers ensure engagement and leadership by officers in WHS management. This supports sustainability and improvement in WHS performance.

Workers all staff must take reasonable care for their own health and safety and take reasonable care that their actions or omissions do not adversely affect the health and safety of others

 

 

Overview

Best Events Catering recognises the importance of providing a safe and healthy environment.

Best Events Catering aspires for excellence in workplace health and safety and is committed to providing an environment which is free from risks and conducive to the productivity and efficiency needs of its staff and others.

 

Policy

 

1.     Compliance with legislation

Best Events Catering meets the requirements of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and complies with all other relevant legislation, regulations, codes of practice, advisory and best practice standards as well as organisational policies and procedures.

 

 

2.     Organisational responsibility and commitment 

Best Events Catering is committed to:

·       Providing a safe and healthy environment for all staff and others during their participation in activities with Best Events Catering.

·       Providing a safe and healthy environment for all participants in our events. 

·       Implementing effective risk management systems that are relevant and suitable for the organisation’s scope of business; promote workplace health and safety at all times; and continuously improve performance in relation to health and safety. 

·       Encouraging active participation, cooperation and consultation with all staff and others in the promotion and development of measures to improve health and safety.

·       Actively responding to, recording and investigating all incidents.

·       Maintaining relevant policies, procedures, training, codes of conduct and systems to support and communicate effective health and safety practices throughout the organisation.

·       Routinely conducting checks of the work environment to assess risks, identify hazards and identify areas for improvement.

·       Taking immediate response to reduce the risk of identified workplace hazards.

·       Providing appropriate induction, training, information and updates to staff on a regular basis about workplace health and safety.

All changes to the company’s WHS Policy and Procedures are to be approved by the Operations Manager prior to adoption.

 

 

3.     Staff responsibility

All staff including managers have a responsibility to work safely; take all reasonable care for their own health and safety; and always consider the health and safety of others who may be affected by their actions.

When staff are undertaking work from home or at an off-site location, the staff member is responsible for ensuring the environment they enter into is free from risk and occupational health and safety hazards.

In relation to events this means following the Work Health and Safety Plan and completing a Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment. 

 

 

4.     Event Safety

Event safety is paramount and health and safety must be carefully planned. 

All persons planning and organising events are to populate the Work Health and Safety Plan and completing a Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment. 

Hazards are initially identified through review of available information and meeting with staff. Once the event organisation commences and there is a visit to the site, any additional hazards and risks will be added to the Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.

 

5.     Reporting

All staff, and others are required to report any identified workplace hazards and associated risks as soon as they become aware of them.

All staff, and others are required to report any incident that causes harm to a person during their participation in work and/or training activities with Best Events Catering.

 

 

6.     Records

Appropriate records of the organisation’s risk management strategy, workplace hazards and workplace injuries will be accurately maintained at all times.

 

 

7.     Injury management

As a first priority, first aid should be sought following a workplace injury, and the injured employee’s Supervisor/Manager notified as soon as possible. If necessary, further treatment should be arranged depending upon the severity of the injury (i.e. treatment by ambulance, taken to hospital via ambulance or consulting a doctor). 

A valid Certificate of Capacity must be obtained from the NTD specifying the injured employee’s exact injury and diagnosis, further treatment requirements and their fitness for work.

 

 

8.     Return to work

The Employee RTW Coordinator will notify the Insurer of the injury within 48 hours of becoming aware of the injury.

Best Events Catering is committed to helping an injured employee to RTW following a workplace injury, in a timely and safe manner by providing suitable duties.

Once suitable duties have been determined by the Employee Return to Work Coordinator and injured employee’s Supervisor/Manager, a Return to Work Plan will be developed to outline the specific duties the injured employee will perform, the hours and location of suitable duties and any medical restrictions to be applied to the injured employee’s RTW.

Once the RTW Plan is developed, a copy will be provided to the NTD, injured employee and Supervisor/Manager.

 

 

9.     WHS performance evaluation

WHS Management System to be audited annually.

To assist with the evaluation, staff are to be provided with a questionnaire and asked to fill it out. The questionnaire should ask how they feel about the WHSMS over the previous 12 months and whether, in their experience, the key performance indicators have been met.

A yearly internal audit, carried out by one of the team leaders, should include:

·       A summary of WHS issues encountered by staff, clients and contractors over the year

·       The extent to which objectives and targets have been met

·       Summarise the results of the annual staff WHS questionnaire

·       Any recommendations for changes to be made to the WHS Policy and Procedures.

All staff should have the ability to contribute to the annual audit

Each audit should provide all staff the opportunity to contribute to the annual audit and to suggest changes to the company’s WHS Policy and Procedures.

 

Procedures

1.     Workplace health and safety inspections

	Steps	Responsibility
1.1	Annual workplace inspections. ·       An Annual worksite inspection will be conducted using the Workplace Health & Safety Checklist.	Operations Manager
1.2	Pre-operation workplace inspections ·       Where there is a change to a process or new or modified equipment is introduced, a workplace inspection will be conducted prior to the equipment being used. A Hazard Inspection Checklist should be used for this task.	Relevant manager
1.3	Regular workplace inspections  ·       Managers and staff must conduct ongoing inspections as part of their job responsibilities. Such inspections identify hazardous conditions and either correct them immediately or report them for corrective action. The frequency of these inspections varies with the amount and conditions of equipment use. Daily checks by users assure that the equipment meets minimum acceptable safety requirements. ·       Hazard inspections should be performed prior to every meeting.	All Managers. All meeting conveners.
1.4	Home office inspections. ·       As at work, staff members must report any hazards identified in their work environment accordingly and record the outcomes on a Hazard Inspection Checklist. ·       These records are to be provided to the General Manager as completed.	All staff
1.5	Control hazards ·       All hazards identified through any of the above inspections must be reported to the Operations Manager using the Workplace Hazard Report. ·       Appropriate actions must be taken to control any hazards identified.  ·       Hazards and control mechanisms are to be recorded in the central Safety and Hazard Register for all identified hazards. ·       Risk ratings are to be added to the Risk Management Plan.	All staff

 

 

2. Identify and control hazards - Best Events Catering workplace

	Steps	Responsibility
2.1	Identify and control hazards. ·       All staff have a responsibility to respond to hazards and perceived risks to health and safety. ·       Any staff member who identifies a potential or actual workplace hazard must report it immediately to the Operations Manager using the Workplace Hazard Report. ·       The Operations Manager will take appropriate actions to control the identified hazards  ·       The Operations Manager will complete the Hazard Register for all identified hazards.	All staff and Operations Manager

 

3.     Hazard identification and risk assessment and control - event sites

	Steps	Responsibility
3.1	Review available information relevant to  ·        WHS information provided by state/territory regulator ·        WHS information at: o    https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/media-centre/fun-exciting-and-safe-whs-major-events Identify all hazards and populate the Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment in the Work Health and Safety Plan. Discuss the completed checklist with staff during a meeting. File the completed Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.  Add to the Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment following visit to the event site.  All subsequent event planning will use this completed checklist and take it out to event sites for addition to as required.	Event Manager

4.     Workplace incidents

	Steps	Responsibility
4.1	Workplace incidents ·       If an incident occurs in the workplace any persons attending to the incident or witness to the incident are to fill in a Workplace Incident Form.  ·       Where the incident involves an injury, the first person in attendance to a workplace injury should contact the First Aid Officer or emergency services in the case of a serious injury. ·       Workplace Injury Forms are to be provided to the Operations Manager who will use the records to gather accounts of the incident and use them as the basis of an investigation into the incident, if required. ·       All serious injuries will be reported to Worksafe.	All staff        Operations Manager

 

5.     Health and safety consultation and communication 

 

	Steps	Responsibility
5.1	Health and safety consultation and communication will be carried out as follows: ·       Team meetings (where work health and safety is always an agenda item) ·       One off meetings to discuss health and safety issues arising ·       Briefing sessions on new health and safety requirements/information Records of all meetings will be kept and action plans to address issues will be drawn up as required. Follow up of actions to be taken will occur through regular team meetings	Operations Manager

 

 

6.     Injury management and Returning to Work

	Steps	Responsibility
6.1	If an employee is injured during the course of their employment, a Workplace Injury and Illness Form is to be completed by the employee’s manager or the Employee RTW Coordinator and submitted to the Operations Manager within 48 hours of the injury being sustained. The Employee RTW Coordinator will notify the Insurer of the injury within 48 hours of becoming aware of the injury. If an injury or illness means that the employee will be unable to work for more than two days in a row, the RTW Coordinator is responsible for contacting the company’s Nominated Treating Doctor (NTD) to request an employee assessment. Best Events Catering is committed to helping an injured employee to RTW following a workplace injury, in a timely and safe manner by providing suitable duties.	RTW Coordinator

 

 Best Events Catering

 

Workplace Health and Safety Plan

 

 

Purpose

The purpose of this WHS Plan is to ensure that a risk based approach is used to identify and prioritise their hazards tasks and plan actions to reduce the risk of injury or illness associated with those hazards or hazardous tasks. This includes risk assessment and control. 

 

Roles and responsibilities

Event Managers are responsible for providing events that is, as far as reasonably practicable, safe and healthy for staff, contractors, participants and others.

Workers must take reasonable care for their own health and safety while they are at work and take reasonable care that their acts or omissions do not adversely affect the health and safety of other persons. 

 

 

Identification of hazards and risks

Hazard and risk assessment is to be undertaken as follows:

Review available information relevant to 

·        WHS information provided by state/territory regulator

·        WHS information at:

o    https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/media-centre/fun-exciting-and-safe-whs-major-events

Identify all hazards and populate the Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment in the Work Health and Safety Plan.

Discuss the completed checklist with staff during a meeting.

File the completed Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment. 

Add to the Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment following visit to the event site. 

All subsequent event planning will use this completed checklist and take it out to event sites for addition to as required.

 

Objectives

That events are conducted safely and there are no incidents. 

 

 

Risk assessment

Risk analysis involves considering the causes and sources of risks and comprises three factors:  consequence, likelihood and risk.

Consequence	What would be the outcome of the event occurring? How severe would the outcome be?
Likelihood	What is the chance of the event/consequence happening? Has the event/consequence happened before? Is it likely to happen again?
Risk level	The combined result of likelihood and consequence

 

Analyse the level of risk by using a table to identify the severity or insignificance of the consequence:

LIKELIHOOD	CONSEQUENCE
	Insignificant	Minor	Moderate	Major	Severe
Almost certain	M	H	H	VH	VH
Likely	M	M	H	H	VH
possible	L	M	H	H	VH
Unlikely	L	L	M	M	H
Rare	L	L	M	M	H

 

Evaluate how soon you should act to remove or control the hazard to achieve an ‘acceptable’ level of risk. Any task with a very high level of risk level is unacceptable.

Risk level	Action
Very high	The proposed task or process activity must not proceed. Steps must be taken to lower the risk level to as low as reasonably practicable using the hierarchy of controls.
High	The proposed task or process activity can only proceed, provided that: ·        The risk level has been reduced to as low as reasonably practicable using the hierarchy of controls ·        The risk controls must include those identified in legislation, Australian Standards, code of practice etc. ·        The risk assessment has been reviewed and approved by the supervisor or other relevant personnel  ·        A safe working procedure or safe work method has been prepared  ·        The supervisor must review and document the effectiveness of the implemented risk controls.
Medium	The proposed task or process can proceed, provided that: ·        The risk level has been reduced to as low as reasonably practicable using the hierarchy of controls ·        The risk assessment has been reviewed and approved by the supervisor or other relevant personnel  ·        A safe working procedure or safe work method has been prepared.
Low	Managed by local documented routine procedures, which must include application of the hierarchy of controls.

 

 

 

Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment 

 

Description of Event (include a detailed description of the event including who it is aimed at, the format of the day and where it will be held, as well as approximately how many event staff and participants there will be)

List at least 10 hazards. List at least 10 hazards. The hazards you list must include at least one actual or foreseeable hazard from the following list:

·       Physical environment 

·       Plant

·       Work practice

·       Security issue

Describe each one and include the risk rating and a suggested risk control. Identify who is responsible. Ensure the risk rating is scored as per the risk legend included with this plan.

 

Hazards (Actual or Foreseeable)	Description of the hazard (include enough information and examples to show that this hazard has the level of risk you are assigning)	Risk Rating	Risk Controls	Responsible