Site Safety Rules

Legal Requirements for issuing Site Safety Rules

Employers have an obligation for the safety of all contractors and visitors who are present at any worksite(s) over which they have influence or control. Steps must be taken to brief them about hazards, emergency procedures and precautions to be taken, to ensure they are competent for the job, have suitable hazard management measures in place, and are monitored and supervised in proportion to the risk. This duty is not transferable to another person, nor can the employer contract out of their duty.

Moreover, the employer may have more than one duty and more than one employer may have the same duty. It therefore follws that, where more than one employer has the same duty in the same worplace, all employers are required to consult, co-operate and co-ordinate their activities in relation to each other

Procedure for issuing Site Safety Rules

The following procedure applies to the whole process of visitor/contractor management. (Exact modules will depend on your version of SafetyBase and options you may have chosen)

• An initial Sign In for everybody, including contractors and visitors (in the Visitor Safety module);
• An Approved Contractors list, to store details of contractor certification and approvals;
• Site Safety Rules, which is a template for creating your own site specific rules;
• Safety Induction to record inductions and evaluate contractor risk ratings;
• Work Permits (in the Hazards module). These allow you to create rules for the management of highly hazardous work
• Safety Contracts, which can be used to develop broad contracts between the contractor and the employer
• Assessments, (under Training), in which you can design pre-qualification courses and tests, email them to recipients and record their responses and qualifications. You can also make currency in an Assessment a pre requisite for other SafetyBase files, such as Site Safety Rules. No name in the drop list, no work! See the Health and Safety Manual section "Assessments" under Training for more details

There are no hard and fast rules as to the exact means used in every case. The processes must be applied according to the level of risk, time, project size and complexity

Wherever practicable, contractors must report to a place or person to register their presence. They must be allocated to a responsible person and be given sufficient information to assure their safety while in the workplace. This will range from basic information like evacuation procedures, escorting/supervision, competency based selection, comprehensive induction using site safety rules, job hazard analysis and monitoring/evaluation of contractor safety performance

The site responsible person will normally be the Plant/Equipment Manager, Property Manager, or the person for the time being performing those roles

The site responsible person should consider the following:

• Do contractors just "turn up" at the job and get started? This is OK for routine tasks for which there is an existing understanding (e.g. truck deliveries), but it's not OK for first visits or more complex and varied work. Getting a Sign In is your opportunity to exchange initial information and assign a host
• Selection and screening. Does the visitor/contractor have the required competency and prior knowledge to complete their business safely? Do you maintain a list of pre-approved contractors? You can use Approved Contractors under the Contractor Safety heading
• Does the contractor/visitor understand the rules and reporting requirements while on site? Do they know where and how to report hazards or accidents? Site Safety Rules is a template you can use, print and get signed/dated
• Does the visitor/contractor have knowledge of the hazards they will encounter or create, and do they have an agreed site specific plan or instructions as to how the hazards will be managed? The Safety Induction can be completed and printed for sign off. It also allows a risk based evaluation of the contractor performance
• Will you require the contractor to sign a baseline safety agreement upon which you can overlay some more specific requirements, including work permits and special precautions? You can use the Safety Contracts template. You can put contract wording into it by using the template at the top of the page at Help/Health and Safety Procedures Manual/Contractor Safety/Safety Contracts
• Do you need to set up a system for monitoring, joint discussions or spot checks to ensure agreed hazard controls are effective and continuing?
• Will you maintain monitoring records and conduct periodic re-evaluations of contractors?

SafetyBase files under the heading Contractor Safety will assist in maintaining and controlling the above processes

How to issue Site Safety Rules

Open a Site Safety Rules file by selecting it from the drop list under Contractor Safety in the left navigation bar. Click the "Add Site Safety Rules" button, enter the file identifiers and click "Create". SafetyBase prompts you to create site specific safety rules from a template

Using Tasks while issuing Site Safety Rules

Tasks can be notifications, instructions, alerts or corrective actions associated with a particular file. You can add Tasks as you go during data entry, using the inline New Task button in your screen. You can also use the Toolbar at the bottom of your screen during data input, or the Tasks tab after you submit the file

As you create a file, SafetyBase may automatically set suggested Tasks, depending on some of your droplist selections. Watch for inline informational messages, which are there to alert you if a droplist might create an automatic Task

Please note that although these automatic Tasks may be created as helpful prompts, they do have generic wording, so you have the choice of creating Tasks yourself. This is advisable if you prefer the wording to be specific or personal. If appropriate, you can select the "Recurring" button, which lets you create a repeating schedule, (say, an inspection, review or check-up interval)

When any Task is set in the system, it will display in the form you created, a summary tab in the file and in the Task List of the person it is allocated to (Recurring Tasks don't show until they are due). Tasks are also e-mailed to the allocated person on the required number of days prior to the Due Date

A small number of tasks have been set as mandatory (example, reporting serious injuries to the statutory authority). These cannot be deleted

SafetyBase Tips and Tricks for issuing Site Safety Rules

• Consider associating an electronic document (example, the contractor's certification, an existing image, pdf, spreadsheet, document, video etc), using the "Attach Documents" tab, or inline toolbar at the bottom of your screen while entering data. Record the document's details by completing the appropriate data fields, then click Attach Document. The document will upload and be available for viewing. Many file types will display as a thumbnail

• You can associate a SafetyBase file using the "Link Files" inline button on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen while entering data, or afterwards, using the Tasks tab (example, a Work Permit or similar file that has direct relevance): Record the file's details by completing the appropriate data fields, then click ADD. Use the progressive filtering of the drop lists and ADD the file you want. The file will be linked. If you follow the link, the linked file will automatically have a link back to the file you came from

• Remember to link People with this file type, using the "Associate People" inline button on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen while entering data, or afterwards, using the Associate People tab. Example, the identity of the person who issued the Site Safety Rules. Doing this will build an automatic safety history for each person, which you can view by clicking on the person's name anywhere in the account