Good Guidance Helps WorkSafe too

Working at Height Good Practice Advocacy

Good Guidance helps WorkSafe too. A GPG is one of the primary decision-making tools for whether your actions are likely reasonably practicable, but the guidance does not currently disclose the determination.

This is, of course, more problematic for industry trying to evaluate and weigh decisions against costs and time, but it is also problematic for inspectors who need to make decisions to faithfully and consistently apply powers that could shut a site down or result in prosecution.

Clear guidance sets expectations for both sides and gives us a baseline for comparison.

Clarity on real lifecycle risk and method prioritisation, based on the balance of risk (with accepted calculation methods) and the use of the hierarchy of controls to identify and close openings within the risk-proven selection, is, functionally, a playbook with agreed thresholds for failure and examples for comparison.

Inspectors and investigators (and their lawyers) would have a clear framework to evaluate failures and determine whether reasonably practicable was met, and the industry would have clear expectations to inform training and PCBU processes.

The real concern about making a predetermined acceptance is not really valid from a WorkSafe mission perspective, and that is that WorkSafe approve an action that, though under unknown circumstances, results in harm.

Avoiding this risk through vague outcome statements in guidance while holding the power to enforce individual judgement on it is a conflict that serves no one.

If individual inspector judgements are based on information other than the guidance, then WorkSafe has institutional expectations that could be shared; if they don’t, how is enforcement managed consistently?

As with any communication, whether guidance, contracts, or direct instruction, it is always best served when both sides share the exact same expectations.

If you agree that the guidance is the ideal vehicle to share these expectations, let me be your voice and sign the petition to show support so I can advocate on your behalf.