Edith Cowan UniversityHuman Resources Services Centre Meeting Minutes – 22 June 2015 Human Resources Services Centre

Edith Cowan University Meeting Minutes – 14 March 2017

Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au

University Health and Safety Committee

Minutes of the first meeting (2017) of the University Health and Safety Committee

which was held at 10.00am on Tuesday 14 March 2017 in Room 1.447 on the Joondalup Campus and via videoconference to 1.107 SW Campus

and 10.308 Mount Lawley

AttendeesGeneral Members Apologies

Jenny Robertson Chair, Director HRSCProfessor Arshad Omari Senior Deputy Vice-ChancellorProfessor Lynne Cohen Representative of University

ExecutivePhillip Draber Manager and Chief Risk and

Assurance OfficerBelinda Owen HRSC Safety and Employment

RelationsLesley Roza

Adrienne Seery HRSC Safety and Employment Relations

Leanne Norbury

Ben Knox HRSC Safety and Employment Relations

Fiona Peters

Martha Cavanagh HRSC Safety and Employment Relations

School / Centre / Committee Management Representative

Health and Safety Representative

Apologies

School of Education Professor Lynne Cohen Gill TreichelSchool of Arts and Humanities Paul Godfrey (via

videoconference)WAAPAKurungurl KatitjinSchool of Business and Law Sue Stenmark Penny Holmes-

BrownECU South West Campus Professor Lyn Farrell (via

videoconference)School of Engineering Xiaoli Zhao Yong Sun (Deputy) Adrian StylesSchool of Medical and Health Sciences

Danielle Brown Doreen Mackie

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Chris McCafferty Kelly Dillon

School of Science Phyll Mahon Paul RoachStudent Services Centre Dr Glenda JacksonFacilities and Services Centre Maxine Plant Phil PearsonLocal HS Committee - Strategic Governance Services, HRSC

Amanda Mulligan Janet Bartolomei (Deputy) Jo Quinn

Local HS Committee – FBSC, MCSC, ODAR, GRS, IO, ORI

Michael Pearson

Local HS Committee – ITSC, LSC, CLT

Tania Behr

GuestsAssociate Professor Simon Laws, Chair RBHSCGwenda Hogg, Injury Prevention & Management Adviser, HRSCHamish Cotton, Security and Traffic Services Manager, Facilities and Services

Edith Cowan UniversityHuman Resources Services Centre Meeting Minutes – 22 June 2015 Human Resources Services Centre

Edith Cowan University Meeting Minutes – 14 March 2017

Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au

P R E L I M I N A R Y M A T T E R S

1. Welcome and Apologies

The Chair, Jenny Robertson, performed an acknowledgement of country and welcomed members to the first meeting of the University Health and Safety Committee for 2017.Apologies were noted.

2. Minutes of University Health and Safety Committee Meeting held on 27 September 2016

The Committee received and noted the minutes of the fourth meeting of the University Health and Safety Committee for 2016 held on 7 December 2016. The minutes were confirmed.

3. Outstanding Actions

No outstanding actions. The two actions from the previous meeting have been closed.

Meeting #

Action Outcome Status

4, 2016 SER to liaise with RASC to include manual handling awareness information into travel briefings provided to staff by RASC.

Travel safety and injury preven-tion information included in FBSC travel newsletter. Travel safety section on HRSC website.

Closed

4, 2016 SER to liaise with Schools, Centres and 2016 Vice-Chancellor’s HS award nominees to develop a schedule of Committee health and safety presentations for the 2017 UHSC meetings.

Schedule drafted. First presenta-tion at Q1 meeting by Security.

Closed

P A R T A – I T E M S F O R D I S C U S S I O N

4. Radiation Biosafety Hazardous Substances Committee project update

Associate Professor Simon Laws introduced himself and provided an overview of his background. Associate Professor Laws will take over the role of Chair of the Radiation Biosafety Hazardous Substances Committee (RBHSC) from Professor Mel Ziman at the next RBHSC meeting in May. Associate Professor Laws acknow-ledged the excellent work of outgoing Chair Professor Mel Ziman as well as Martha Cavanagh and Doreen Mackie and provided some information on key improvements to date:

Approved arrangements The RBHSC has worked with the School of Science, School of Medical and Health Sciences and Facilit-

ies and Services Centre to gain approval for two Biosecurity - Level 1 Approved Arrangements. These arrangements will promote research through improved process and facilities.

RBHSC approval and applications The RBHSC continue to pursue an online approval and application system for ease of use by research-

ers however in the meantime the manual RBHS application and approval form and process has been streamlined. This has resulted in:

o Reduction of many individual forms to oneo Enables the user to clearly identify the hazards and ensure the required controls are in placeo Ensures the work is compliant with all legislative, internal and external requirements.

RBHSC website Located on the ORI webpage Continues to be populated with further RBHS information including a number of standard operating

procedures (SOPs) developed in conjunction with the Schools and Researchers.

Edith Cowan UniversityHuman Resources Services Centre Meeting Minutes – 22 June 2015 Human Resources Services Centre

Edith Cowan University Meeting Minutes – 14 March 2017

Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au

RBHSC meeting and administration process improvements The membership remains stable and is becoming more collaborative with members raising awareness

and supporting the areas they represent e.g. Assisting WAAPA with ventilation queries related to the flammable storage room, assisting School of Science researchers with an approved arrangement for landing quarantine material

A Chemical and Hazardous Substances Custodians sub-committee has been formed with the key purpose to work collaboratively to improve the management of chemicals and hazardous substances across the University and seek to ensure that each component of the minimum requirements for chemical management is met in their Service Centre and School.The sub-committee’s initial focus will be review and update of the Chemalert system.

In addition to the sub-committees a schedule for quarterly RBHSC facility visits for 2017 has been developed and commenced.

The RBHSC has been raising awareness of its role and objectives via a number of different forums such as the University and local Health and Safety Committees, the Risk Reference forum and OSH for Managers and Supervisors Training, and through links to Ethics, Risk and Facilities Management processes.

Associate Professor Laws highlighted the increased awareness of the RBHSC and processes resulting in recent push back from some areas of the University and thus the important first steps as he takes on the role as being:1. Working with senior leadership group to:

Help reaffirm the University’s desire and commitment to improve the management of RBHS activities polish and agree on the processes they will commit to implement in their Schools and Service Cen-

tres2. Continue to work with ORI (including Ethics), GRS, Risk and Assurance, SER and FSC to streamline or

implement new processes for researchers such that RBHS application and approval occur earlier in the project/grant development phase rather than just prior to commencement of the activity

A copy of the presentation material is attached below.

Jenny Robertson and Phillip Draber provided feedback from the 13 March 2017 meeting of the Quality Audit Risk Committee (QARC), acknowledging the positive work and improvements in the processes for ECU to manage this difficult area of health and safety.

5. Mental Health Initiatives

Gwenda Hogg, Injury Management and Prevention Advisor, provided an update on Mental Health initiatives.

PeopleSense – Employee Assistance Provider Commenced as EAP provider for ECU on 1 October 2016 In first quarter (Oct-Dec 16) – total of 28 employees and 5 family members accessed PeopleSense’s

services for general counselling with the average number of sessions for both employees and family members was between 1-2. 76% accessed for personal reasons; 24% reported experiencing work related issues - most commonly conflict with managers, followed closely by conflict with peers

In terms of usage rates: based on the first quarter with PeopleSense (extrapolated to full year usage/based on 1,840 employees)

o ECU: 6.08% annualised usage rateo Education sector: 4.42%o All industries: 3.25%

ECU’s usage rate is high but this may be based on introduction of a new service and the promotion around this. Future quarter data will determine if the high usage rate continues.

From January this year, we’ve had a PeopleSense Counsellor available working from a counselling room in Building 8 at the Joondalup campus every second Thursday. On average counsellor reports seeing 2-

Edith Cowan UniversityHuman Resources Services Centre Meeting Minutes – 22 June 2015 Human Resources Services Centre

Edith Cowan University Meeting Minutes – 14 March 2017

Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au

3 staff on these days. The same counsellor attends and she is available on site for the full day as required.

PeopleSense also provide a Manager Assist Program providing support/advice/guidance for those in more senior positions dealing with people-related issues such as:

o Managing distressed or traumatised employeeso Managing significant mental health issues, including self-harm/suicideo Education about common mental health issues, such as depression and anxietyo Developing resilience in teams or with individualso Assisting staff to manage organisational changeo Does NOT include employment relations/industrial advice.

Manager Assist services are available 24 hours either by phone or face-face in recognition that Managers often need immediate advice/support.

Mental Health First Aid The first 2-day MHFA workshop was conducted on 7 and 8 Feb 2017 by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)

Instructors who are Academics from the School of Medical and Health Sciences. This was very well received by the 23 participants, who all received accreditation in MHFA which is valid for 3 years.

All three courses scheduled for Feb/July and November 2017 are now fully booked with a wait list and another course is being conducted in April targeting attendees from specific areas including First Aid Officers, OSH reps, Security, Staff Counselling and Human Resources.

With the 4 courses we will have trained around 120 staff by the end of 2017, which will allow us to apply for recognition as a Silver Level - Mental Health Skilled workplace (training 5% or our workforce). This provides recognition and reward to the University as one of the many workplaces in Australia that are working to increase mental health literacy and we can access electronic badging for our website, which adds to our employer of choice offering.

Aim would be to achieve gold status (training 10% of our workforce) by 2018.

Support available via HR for supporting and assisting staff with MH issues in the workplace. No distinction between the management of physical and psychological injuries. We aim to promote a

positive culture towards mental health. We also aim to provide early intervention so that the staff member is able to receive the support and

assistance they need as soon as possible. Often staff matters are raised in the first instance with the HR Account Manager, it may be that the

manager has noticed some changes in mood, attendance, behaviour or performance. Often there may be an underlying health or medical issue that is contributing, most commonly staff experiencing anxiety, depression and other mood disorders.

Some staff will be under the care of their GP (and/or a Psychiatrist), they may be seeing a psychologist as part of their care plan, and taking medication. They may currently be off work due to illness and needing assistance to return to their role. They may not want to disclose any details of their medical condition or treatment to their manager, but may be happy to discuss with Gwenda confidentially in her role as Injury and Illness Prevention Advisor.

From a HR perspective, a case management approach is implemented, where we seek advice from relevant areas to work together to achieve the best outcomes for the individual and the University. This may involve liaison with any treating practitioners, (with the staff member’s authority), to determine what the workplace needs to do to support a staff member, e.g. implementing a Return to Work plan which may include modified hours/duties for an agreed period of time.

6. Health and Safety Update

Adrienne Seery provided an overview of the University’s performance against targets at the end of 2016. The University had more LTIs in 2016 than the previous year as well as more severe injuries in terms of days lost.

An overview of the 2016 performance is attached.

Edith Cowan UniversityHuman Resources Services Centre Meeting Minutes – 22 June 2015 Human Resources Services Centre

Edith Cowan University Meeting Minutes – 14 March 2017

Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au

2017 University HS targets are a 10% improvement on the end of 2016 outcome other than the Manager and Supervisor training target which has been raised to 90% to focus on achieving the goal.

General discussion occurred in relation to reviewing the data to identify trends, excluding those with high severity. Adrienne Seery commented that there had been a strong focus in 2016 on near miss reporting and this was reflected in the performance data.

At the time of the meeting there were no Quarter 1 significant incidents to report.

7. Travel Safety and Injury Prevention

Adrienne Seery provided an overview of the work done to highlight travel safety including: Information on HRSC website and FBSC Travel website Travel newsletter Work with FBSC to include information in travel guidelines

Discussion occurred regarding possibility of broadening the information on travel safety available including: Senior leadership sharing travel arrangements and the risk that poses to the University Single women travelling and the possible connection with the Athena Swan project The risks associated with the use of services such as Uber and AirBnB

Action 7.1: SER to work with Risk, FBSC and Athena Swan regarding developing broader travel safety information and advice for the University

8. Legal Updates

Belinda Owen provided a legal update including:

Health and Safety Legal RegisterThe Safety and Employment Relations team have developed a Health and Safety Compliance Obligations guideline and associated Health and Safety Legal Register to: Document the process for identifying and managing Health and Safety related compliance obligations as-

sociated with ECU operations including communication of legislative changes Record the health and safety legislative and other compliance obligations relevant to ECU’s activities and

operations

WHS Legislation Update As a result of the recent State Government Election there has been no recent progress on the move to-

wards adoption of harmonised WHS legislation in WA. With a new government now formed we await fur-ther communication from WorkSafe WA.

Recent Worker ProsecutionsThere have been two recent prosecutions of employees in Western Australia for failure to take reasonable care not to adversely affect another person and by that failure, causing the death of that person. These pro-secutions reinforce that the employer is not the only one with a duty of care for others and that workers should follow the safe systems of work implemented by an employer.

Details of the two prosecutions are available via the links below: WA car dealership employee Hay baling company employee

9. Security and Traffic Services Safety Improvements

Hamish Cotton provided an overview of the Security and Traffic Services Safety Improvements. The Security and Traffic team were nominated for a Vice-Chancellor’s award in Safety in 2016 for the work they have been doing to keep University campuses safe for staff, students and visitors. The presentation covered:

Security role in incident response, hazard identification, security patrols Improved CCTV coverage including body cameras now worn by security and a 24/7 manned control

room

Edith Cowan UniversityHuman Resources Services Centre Meeting Minutes – 22 June 2015 Human Resources Services Centre

Edith Cowan University Meeting Minutes – 14 March 2017

Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au

Working alone checks and the potential for radios to be loaned by staff Security escorts to vehicles

10. Due Diligence Reporting Workshop

Belinda Owen advised that the current Due Diligence checklist and process was under review following feed-back from the last reporting period. To improve the usability, the SER team are working with OD to schedule a workshop with Operations Managers and Local HS Committee Chairs. This is likely to occur in May. Belinda requested that those invited support this initiative to ensure that the final process is beneficial in as-sisting Deans and Directors to meet their due diligence requirements.

11. Workers’ Compensation Funding Returns Update

Belinda Owen provided an update on the workers’ compensation funding returns. They remain delayed as ECU has yet to receive the Insurance premium invoices from RiskCover to enable the budget to be interrog-ated to determine the amount of apportioning funding available.

Amanda Mulligan queried whether it was possible to amend the current process for apportioning funds to en-able Schools and Centres to carry over unused funds so they have budget at the beginning of the following year rather than having to await the distribution of funds. This suggestion was supported by a number of Op-erations Managers and local HS Committee Chairs.

Action 11.1: Review apportioning processes and budget allocation timing with FBSC once the 2017 apportioning amounts are available.

Concerns regarding the processes for ergonomic assessment and recommendations for equipment and re-quests sit-stand desks provided by West Coast Therapy were raised by several Schools and Service Centres. Feedback was provided regarding improvement work currently in process through Leanne Norbury in particu-lar regarding sit-stand desk processes.

Action 11.2: Ergonomic assessment and equipment purchase processes, including sit-stand desk pro-cedures, to be finalised. Presentation to be provided at the next meeting of the Committee.

P A R T B – I t e m s f o r N o t i n g

12. Approved 2017 University Health and Safety Targets

Noted

P A R T C – O T H E R B U S I N E S S

13. QFM Notifications

On behalf of the School of Arts and Humanities, Kurungurl Katitjin, WAAPA and School of Education local HS Committee, Paul Godfrey raised concerns regarding QFM and notifications on the closure of events being inadequate, specifically

1. Jobs were being closed without any notification as to the work that was done to resolve the hazard. 2. Jobs were being closed and new ones created without the reporter being notified as to the progress

or outcome of the new job.

Belinda Owen provided advice given by email by Kevin Hall, Manager Buildings and Services: Facilities Managers and Brookfields have been instructed to sample 10 events per week and check

quality of information being provided and also reinforced the standard of work required. A solution to jobs being closed and new jobs created without the reporter being notified has been

identified in the last 2 weeks with SWG and will be tested with a view to changing process. This

Edith Cowan UniversityHuman Resources Services Centre Meeting Minutes – 22 June 2015 Human Resources Services Centre

Edith Cowan University Meeting Minutes – 14 March 2017

Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au Safety and Employment Relations Telephone: 08 6304 2302 Email: osh@ecu.edu.au

should then resolve the problem of a customer receiving a job closure when more work is actually required.

It was agreed that the situation would be monitored to determine if the solutions proposed resolve the issues experienced.

Action 13.1: Committee members to refer back to Local HS Committee and provide feedback to UHSC as to the effectiveness of the improvements at next committee meeting.

Meeting Close: 11:15am

Signed: Date: 19 April 2017 Jenny Robertson,Chair