Workplace Incidents and the role of rehabilitation

Small Biz Matters - a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.
Small Business Bookkeeping Tips 
with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management Services
Date: 12 April 2016

• I know a lot of businesses I deal with haven’t yet familiarised themselves with this info, I guess it’s one of the aspects which is pushed down the list of priorities and will be dealt with, should an incident ACTUALLY happen, rather than preparing in the event of one possibly occurring.
• Because the reality is, when a serious incident occurs not only is the individual affected but also the employer – how are you going to make up for the loss of a worker? How are you going to feel if a near Miss was identified and you did nothing to stop it happening again?
• What are they and how are they defined? Workcover says A “notifiable incident” means:
     -the death of a person, or
     -a serious injury or illness of a person, or
     -a dangerous incident.
• You also need to investigate near misses too, to ensure a serious accident can’t occur.
• Again to quote the WorkCover website: “The reason for investigating an incident or near miss is to determine: the cause or causes of the incident; to identify any risks, hazards, systems or procedures that contributed to the incident; and to recommend corrective action to prevent similar incidents.
• Incidents should be investigated by people knowledgeable about the type of work involved at the time of the incident. HSRs or relevant workers should also be involved in the investigation.
• An incident /near miss investigation report should answer the WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHAT, WHY and HOW questions with regard to an incident.”
• An example is a burn incident

(Photo courtesy of Visit Finger Lakes)