Employers are being warned that they can’t rely on a quality audit to reduce their safety risks.
Ai Group Senior Adviser - WHS Consulting Services Christina Sobieralski said many businesses were being lulled into a false sense of security by failing to realise quality and safety audits serve different purposes.
“Many companies, particularly those in the manufacturing sector or service industry, focus on quality certification to prove products, processes and services meet certain minimum quality standards,” she said.
“However, to identify and manage hazards in the workplace to comply with health and safety legislation, you need a safety audit.”
Ms Sobieralski, who performs WHS inspections for Ai Group’s WHS Consulting team and the Ai Group Apprentice and Trainee Centre before apprentices are placed with host employers, said it was deeply concerning companies were failing to keep abreast of health and safety laws.
“I’ve been to sites where I’ve had to tell the company that we’re not placing our apprentices with them until they address safety issues I’ve identified,” she said.
“Often, they are shocked and disappointed because they’ve ticked all the boxes in a quality audit and are lulled into thinking their workplace is safe.
But, it’s not the role of the quality auditor to check for safety hazards such as machine guarding or whether the place is a fire hazard. That’s not their area of expertise and they don’t have that body of safety knowledge.”
A company’s officers are required to do their due diligence when it comes to WHS.
“If they don’t know what the safety requirements are, it’s on them to find out because if an incident does occur, they’ll have some explaining to do,” Ms Sobieralski said.
“In court, they will be asked questions such as:
“You can’t hide behind the quality officer or ignore your high-risk safety hazards,” Ms Sobieralski said.
Failing to make the right decisions can result in prosecution for manslaughter under safety legislation and personal liability of decision makers in the company.
To identify and manage safety hazards within your business, you need the right resources and people.
You need to be able to articulate how you are controlling any issues and what your action plan is.
Have you trained enough people to manage safety in the workplace? If you’re not prepared, you need the expertise of a professional.
The Ai Group WHS Consulting team can visit your site to create a high-level action plan that outlines the critical steps you need to take to comply with safety legislation.
“We undertake a workplace inspection and review your hazards to make sure you are meeting legislative requirements,” Ms Sobieralski said.
“The plan shows what you need to specifically do to satisfy the due diligence requirement of officers of the company.
“It prompts you to allocate people to action items and specify timeframes."
Ai Group can also provide a combined service with a dual quality and safety audit, resulting in a management system that addresses both areas.
“If you don’t have the skill set to identify those hazards correctly, it’s essential to outsource the service to safety experts,” Ms Sobieralski said.
ISO 45001 is an international standard that specifies requirements for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system.
It provides a framework for organisations to manage risks and improve OH&S performance.
“Many companies with an ISO 45001 seek regular safety audits to assess if improvements have been made,” Ms Sobieralski said.
“They value having safety hazards in the workplace assessed with a fresh set of qualified eyes.”
Businesses can manage both quality and safety in the workplace.
A quality auditor does not have the skill set to assess workplace safety, so you need the expert advice of a qualified safety auditor if you don't have this capacity inhouse.
“Don't hide behind your quality auditor, because they're not going to be in the witness box when a serious incident occurs,” Ms Sobieralski said.
“You are.”
Click here to learn more about Ai Group WHS audits and inspections or email the team.
Wendy Larter is Communications Manager at the Australian Industry Group. She has more than 20 years’ experience as a reporter, features writer, contributor and sub-editor for newspapers and magazines including The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and Metro, the News of the World, The Times and Elle in the UK.
