Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Issue Resolution Procedures

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Page Contents

Includes: ~ Introduction | Immediate Safety Hazards | Provisional Improvement Notices

Introduction

If you have concerns regarding EHS management in the department or regarding your personal work-related health and safety, you can raise these concerns with the following people. The sooner you report a concern, the sooner it can be resolved.

  1. First, approach your immediate supervisor. The supervisor has a duty of care to ensure correct EHS procedures are followed and provisions for safe work are made.
  2. If you cannot discuss this with your supervisor, or are not satisfied with his/her response, raise the matter with the departmental Safety Officer or with a member of the Safety Committee. All matters raised with the Safety Officer and Committee will be treated as confidential.
  3. If you have concerns after opening these dialogues and no resolution seems to be forthcoming, you should contact the Designated Work Group Health and Safety Representative. There is a prescribed sequence of actions (below) that will then be set in motion.
  4. Using the steps outlined above, the majority of safety issues should be capable of immediate and preferably local resolution using line management.

Immediate Safety Hazards

There may be circumstances where a definite and immediate safety hazard is perceived, and the issue is considered urgent and serious. In this case, the Health and Safety Representatives will inform the supervisor of the area who should call an immediate halt to the work whilst the issue is investigated.

In the event the supervisor fails to agree about the degree of risk present or the supervisor is not available, the Health and Safety Representative will direct affected employees to withdraw from the alleged hazard having regard to the health and safety of others and will then inform the appropriate manager of the actions that have been taken pending a full investigation. The Health and Safety Representative will immediately inform the University EHS Unit of the action taken.

Work will not resume until it has been agreed that the hazard has been controlled and no longer presents an unacceptable risk to the safety and health of employees. Alternative duties may be found for those members of staff affected, but no pay will be lost in the event of a demonstrated safety hazard having been detected.

A written report of the situation and the actions taken should be prepared by the Workgroup/Supervisor, and where appropriate the Health and Safety Representative, for the University Occupational Health & Safety Committee and the University EHS Unit.

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Provisional Improvement Notices

The Occupational Health & Safety Act gives elected Health & Safety Representatives some important powers and responsibilities, the most significant of which is the right to issue a Provisional Improvement Notice (PIN) requiring management to act on a specific safety issue.

Action Sequence:
If the HSR is required to facilitate the resolution of a safety issue, the following sequence of events will be followed:

  1. The elected Health and Safety Representative identifies a safety issue or problem in his/her designated work group. Note that the matter may have been referred initially to the representative by another staff member or Health and Safety Representative from another work group.
  2. The Health and Safety Representative brings the matter to the attention of the supervisor of the work area involved (eg. laboratory manager, academic supervisor) and the Departmental Safety Officer by the completion of an Incident Report S3. The representative may have sought prior advice of the University EHS Unit in doing this. The supervisor of the work area may also seek advice from the University EHS Unit upon receipt of the NOSI form.
  3. If, within 5 working days or less, the supervisor and representative can reach agreement on the means to deal with the concerns raised, the matter is then regarded as satisfactorily resolved at the local level. Satisfactory resolution would include immediate settlement of this and any related concerns as well as an agreed plan and timetable for future action if immediate action is not possible.
  4. If, however, the representative and the supervisor cannot satisfactorily resolve the issue at the local level and the representative believes that the issue should be pursued, the representative should refer the issue involved to the head of department responsible for the workplace in question. At this stage, the Health and Safety Representative should formally advise the University EHS Unit.
  5. The head of department, representative and a member of University EHS Unit then engage in an attempt to reach agreement in a satisfactory resolution of the issue within 5 working days. If the head of department is not able to take part, for some reason, (and this would be seen as an exceptional instance) an appropriate nominee with the delegated authority to commit the department to any consequential undertaking may be nominated. Again, satisfactory resolution includes immediate settlement or an agreed plan of the future action.
  6. If no satisfactory resolution can be reached at step 5 that resolves the issue, then the Health and Safety Representative should further investigate the issuance of a formal Provisional Improvement Notice.
  7. These procedures should be read and understood to comply with the requirements of the Occupational Health & Safety Act and in no way override the rights and obligations of elected Health and Safety Representatives under the relevant legislation.

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