FORESTRY Corporation (FCNSW) staff from the Bombala Management Area recently attended a safety forum at the Bombala RSL Club.
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In a departure from previous formats, staff were divided into working groups and asked to discuss the health and safety issues they felt important to them individually and to their group as a whole.
At the end of the session, a representative from each team was asked to present their findings to the forum, which were documented for review by the Health and Safety Committee.
The committee plans to use these initiatives to develop a Safety Improvement and Initiatives Plan for the ensuing 12 months.
The format proved popular with staff and some innovative and proactive observations were provided by the teams.
Chair of the Health and Safety Committee, Jeremy Clear said that local staff were committed to workplace health and safety, as evidenced by the fact that local staff had gone over three years without a workplace lost time incident. This was a significant milestone for the workforce and the organisation.
The Health and Safety Committee which was recently elected were looking forward to a renewed approach to safety management and working with local staff to maintain the best safety record in the organisation.
The forum was also attended by Peter Douch from Essential Energy who gave an extensive and informative presentation on working with power lines and focused on how to deal with electrical hazards.
FCNSW staff regularly work in close proximity to lines during harvesting, operational and fire fighting activities. The presentation was well received and provided some valuable insight to staff and the reference documents and DVDs provided by Essential Energy.
The forum closed with the Regional Manager for Snowy Region, Bob Germantse, making presentations to staff for individual safety achievements in “zero” lost time incidents to, Michael Cowell (35 years), Kyle Richardson (35 years), Julie Peadon (35 years), Barry Brownlie (30 years), Peter Barber (25 years), Jason Vincent (15 years), and Phil Dewhurst (5 years).