Consulting workers and subbies on safety decisions: the duty, the steps and the records
Consultation is something you do with the crew on the ground, not a form you keep in the site folder. Here is how to run it so it stands up when a regulator or a certifier asks.
11 min read
Topic
Work Health Safety
Articles and news about Work Health Safety for Australian builders.
Consulting workers and subbies on safety decisions: the duty, the steps and the records
Consultation is something you do with the crew on the ground, not a form you keep in the site folder. Here is how to run it so it stands up when a regulator or a certifier asks.
11 min read
When to notify SafeWork NSW about a site incident
Notification is a decision you make in the first hour, usually with incomplete information, while the scene still needs controlling. Get the trigger and the immediate duties right and the rest of the response follows from them.
11 min read
Checking subcontractor insurance and WHS before they start
The cheapest place to fix a subcontractor compliance problem is your desk, the week before they mobilise. Once they are on site, you own the gap.
12 min read
Ladders: the access method nobody plans for on a residential site
Most ladder injuries happen in the first few minutes, before the work starts, when nobody has decided whether a ladder was the right tool at all. Treat access as a planned task rather than a reflex and most of the risk disappears.
11 min read
Supervising apprentices: your WHS duties and the competency record
An apprentice is a worker under WHS law, and a young one with almost no ability to see risk. The duty sits with you, and the evidence of how you discharged it sits in your records.
13 min read
Fatigue on residential builds: the WHS duty behind a long week
Fatigue gets treated as a character problem — the bloke who should have gone home earlier. Under the model WHS laws it is a hazard you manage like any other, and the levers sit mostly with the builder, not the worker.
14 min read
Heat illness prevention on NSW sites: rostering, water and shade as management controls
Heat illness is a management problem before it is a medical one. The controls that hold up are the ones you build into the programme, the site layout and the supervision routine before the first hot week.
13 min read
Manual handling on site: lifting sheets, frames and linings on a residential build
The lifts that hurt builders are rarely the dramatic ones. They are the same sheet, frame and lining handled fifty times a day, by a crew that has stopped noticing it is a hazard.
12 min read
Silica controls for cutting, grinding and mixing on site
Silica dust is not a stone issue, it is a process issue. Control it at the tool, at the mix, and in how the work is sequenced.
14 min read
Managing solvents, adhesives and fuels on house sites
The dangerous chemicals on a house site are rarely the drums. They are the part-used tins, the fuel cans and the adhesive tubes that get left where the last trade put them down.
12 min read
Confined space hazards on house sites: what residential builders need to control
Most confined space training is written for industry, but the hazard turns up on ordinary house sites: a sewer pit, a rainwater tank, a service shaft. The duties do not change because the job is a dwelling.
13 min read
Trench and excavation safety for house footings and service runs
A house-scale trench kills in the same way a civil excavation does. The difference is that on a residential site the controls are usually improvised, because the trench looks small and the job is only a few days.
11 min read