Working at Heights in QLD: The Need to Work Safely
Working at heights in Qld is one of the most dangerous commercial practices and results in numerous deaths and injuries, many of them serious, every year. Consequently, there is extensive working at heights legislation for Qld and nationally to try to prevent avoidable accidents.
As an employer, you have a duty of care to all your employees and sub-contractors, and that’s particularly important if they encounter hazards that result from working at height. That duty is enforced by the Worksafe, which oversees various Australian Standards and Industry Codes that set out what is required for different types of working at height. Read More
Degrees of Protection to Ensure Compliance When Working at Heights in QLD
QLD working at heights is generally defined as operating at heights of two metres or more from the ground. Most of the accidents result from slips and trips, fragile roofing, bad weather or faulty ladders, scaffolding or platforms. Since these accidents can have severe outcomes, it’s important that they are prevented or at least the severity of the results is reduced.
To determine if an area is compliant with regulations or if action needs to be taken, a professional height safety engineer has to undertake a detailed assessment of the site. A hierarchy of control is then applied to determine how hazards are to be dealt with. This requires the highest level of control to be applied where possible and lower levels to be used only when not practical. The levels are:
- Elimination of the risk by removing the hazard. This can involve the construction of some solid form of protection such as a walkway.
- Reducing the risk through replacing the hazard by permanent passive fall protection such as guardrails.
- Engineering controls that isolate workers from the hazard by using anchor points on roofs and static line anchor points or similar, with workers trained in their safe use.
- Administrative controls that change the way people work with warning signs, messages and control procedures.
- Personal protective equipment (PPE) such as fall prevention systems and hard hats.
Working at Heights in QLD | Minimising Risks and Staying Safe
Ensuring compliance and eliminating or minimising risk are not things that can be left to an amateur. At Workplace Access & Safety, we are fully conversant with all national and state legislation and we know what is needed.
Our highly trained and experienced height safety engineers will conduct a thorough inspection of your premises in order to assess the hazards that exist and determine how they can be overcome. You may require roof walkways if there are trip hazards, guardrails or fall protection arrest systems where employees work within two metres of a roof edge or a comprehensive system that incorporates several elements.
Our aim is to ensure your work areas at height are safe for everyone who uses them. That way, you can be sure you have done everything you can to fulfil your duty of care and that you’re fully compliant with health and safety legislation. You’ll therefore avoid any unnecessary penalties and, more than that, know everyone is as safe as possible. So get in touch to arrange an inspection without delay. Read Less
