The Incident

Risk management is basically an approach that systematically manages the hazards of workplace. Being a key component of organisational management, it helps in identifying, evaluating and determining the ways to reduce risk at acceptable level in order to protect visitors, employees and anyone present in the workplace. By introducing proper risk management in an organisation, several hazards of workplace can be stopped and managed with proper safety systems. Organisation should have proper safety system as well as safety culture in order to protect the employees working there. An incident of death of a truck driver has been found in the construction company Canberra in 2012. The company had been fined $1.1 million for the death of the driver.

Workplace description 

Canberra is a construction company in Australia. In a construction company, there are various incidents of health can be happened. The chance of accidents is higher in construction sector than any other sector. It is really true that construction industry is not safe or healthy place. There are various types of works in the construction company such as setting up temporary sources of powers and working platform, plastering, tiling, painting and many others. There are various tools that need to be operated such as various power tools, specialist tools and hand tools.  Various works have been done at height in construction site and it is very risky. Movement of heavy goods from one place to another is also dangerous as well. Slipping and tripping are also common in construction site. Various health hazards happen in construction site that causes injuries as well as death of employees working there. It has been found that in Canberra, there was no any poster of warning for power lines or any attachment of flags for the lines (The Canberra Times, 2015). The corporate culture of Canberra was poor and the safety manager was also not well for the post.

Hazards and Avoidance of Safety Breach and Work Health and Safety Law

The company fails to maintain safety breaches and there was not any poster to warn anyone about power lines or any flag attachment for the lines. According to Ms Walker, there was poor corporate culture in Canberra construction. It has been found that general manager’s son had been appointed to the post of safety manager but he was not qualified for that post. Due to this, the safety system of the company was not proper and there was chance for various incidents.

Legal Requirements for Workplace Safety

As stated by Oakman & Chan (2015), according to the work health and safety law of Australia, every business owners of Australia should fulfil all the requirements of WHS (Work Health and Safety) and if any company does not meet the proper requirements then it has to face penalties.  According to the Act, a overview has been provided in order to make the place of working healthy as well as safety. As stated by Sanz-Calcedo et al.  (2015), this is the legal duties and responsibilities of every individual either he or she is employee or business owner. In accordance to Qian & Lin (2016), according to the regulations, the companies have to meet the risks and hazards such as machinery, noise and proper handling of equipment and tools of work. In accordance to Omar, Parker,  Smith & Pollard (2017), the regulating agencies are responsible for the inspection of workplace, help the employees to know about safety rules and about the penalty that they have to face if they do not follow any rules of WHS (Work Health and Safety) laws of Australia.

What happened? 

Canberra was found to have poor culture of corporate world and the safety system of the company was not proper because of unqualified safety manager. General Manager’s son had been appointed as safety manager because of his father’s position. Due to the breach of safety system, a 48 years old truck driver, Michael Booth was electrocuted due to touch of his tip truck with power lines of low slung. The incident had happened at the work site of Kenoss Contractors of Canberra Company. Canberra was guilty for the safety breaches due to which Mr Booth died. According to the industrial magistrate Ms Walker, no remorse had been shown by the company for the death and the company was in liquidation. Kenosis try for hindering the process of investigation for the death. Ms Walker was found the incident at the higher end of breach (ABC News, 2015). This was the first case of safety laws of national work and a precedent had been set for jurisdictions all around the country. The commissioner of ACT Worksafe Mark McCabe had given a great strong warning to the director of Canberra and told their criminal liability under those new laws (The Canberra Times, 2015).

Resolving the issue by Safe work 

The director of the company or other high authority tries to resolve the issue easily. They try to hinder the issue from the investigation in order to protect the company. Though the industrial magistrate Ms Walker had said that the corporate culture of Canberra was poor, they did not try to improve the safety systems of the organisations. The company had done mistakes by making the general manager’s son as safety manager and he was not proper for the post. The safety system was not well because of unqualified safety manager and due to this, a person had to die and the company did not try to take the responsibility of the person. The issues have been resolved easily by giving strong warning to the directors of the Canberra as well as the company and by taking penalty of $1.1 million for the safety breach by the company (ABC News, 2015).

Preventing Workplace Incidents in the Construction Industry

Ways of preventing of such incidents 

There are various ways of preventing incidents of construction site and it is the responsibility of the company as well as the employees to implement the ways properly in the organisation.

Proper sign of danger

In construction site, there are many dangerous wires as well as area of high voltage. As stated by Alston (2017), these things should be warned properly by a poster or attached flags so that the employees or any other people can understand that the place is dangerous.  

By practising defensive driving

As stated by Schernthaner et al. (2017), warning strobes of vehicles are required for machine and vehicles operators in order to approach traffic. In accordance to Bessis (2015), driving should be done slowly and backing up should be avoided. Assignment of a spotter is required in case of backing up is needed.

Highly visible and reflective clothing

In order to reduce the accidents that is related to vehicles. As stated by Glendon & Clarke (2015), the fabric with high reflective should be used by the workers so that the employees can be safe and protect themselves from the accidents.

Safety Meetings

It is duty of leaders and project managers to have safety meetings in order to aware the employees for their safety. As stated by Hopkin (2018), in order to provide instruction and keep them updated about safety issues, meetings are required.

Frequent Break

It has been seen that in construction site, workers use to work for long time without taking any break that leads to tiredness and they do not work properly with safety. In accordance to Abimbola, Khan, Khakzad & Butt (2015), frequent break should be included in construction site because it will be better for their work as well as their safety.

Avoiding sunlight

As stated by Adamo, Al-Ansari, Laue, Knutsson & Sissakian (2017), sunlight is the main reason of fatigue so it is required to cover all the skins with the shirts of long sleeves and other skin protection to avoid fatigue.

Avoid Night work

In accordance to Bromiley, McShane, Nair & Rustambekov (2015), working for late hours and at the dark environment can be the reason of accidents in construction site. Especially for construction work, night works should be avoided because of the dangerous sector of work.

Addressing the issue like a responsible person of safety system 

As a responsible person of safety system, it can be said that Canberra had done mistakes by breaching safety that caused a death. The company had also done wrong by appointing the general manager’s son as safety manager although he was not fit for the job. Due to unqualified safety manager, one truck driver had to die and many of the other employees are in danger. In accordance to DeAngelo & Stulz (2015), as a responsible person of safety manager, first duty is to improve the safety system of the organisations. As stated by Kouabenan, Ngueutsa & Mbaye (2015), there is requirement of investigating the safety system of every organisation so that accidents can be avoided. It is also the duty of safety system to make people aware of the safety issues as well as penalty if they did not follow the safety system of WHS (Work Health and Safety) law of Australia.

Responsibilities of Safety Managers

Conclusion 

In this project report, risk management has been discussed with the help of a real accident that happened in Canberra. Due to breach of safety, a truck driver had died and the company did not think that it was responsible for the incidents. There was no poster of warning of power lines that had become the reason for the death of the driver. The company try to hinder the incident from the investigation. According to the industrial magistrate, the corporate culture of Canberra was poor and there were no proper safety systems. Safety system is required in any sector in order to protect the employees from risk. Canberra did not focus to the safety system and it had to pay penalty of $1.1 million. In the work of construction site, safety system is mainly required because there are many dangerous works related to power systems, tools, and work at height that requires proper protection for employees in order to reduce risk.

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