NGMW367

Individual / Organisation name:Les Thornley

What state/territory:

Review of the National Guidance Material for Working Safely on the Waterfront

Public Comment Response Form

Complete and submit this form by5pmAESTfriDAY 10 AUGUSt 2012to

Comments on content of the national guidance material
Section/page no. / Comment
Comments on additional issues identified in section 4.2 of the Discussion Paper
Section/page no. / Comment
Hatchmen / Hatchman is an essential part of our work team, fellow workers are on all 4 sides of cargo when a lift is taken to steady the load and it is impossible for the crane driver to see every aspect of the lift from his offset position, I was the deckman when the Commissioner came down to see our working practices and the actual practice of the hatchman, am very disappointed that the company is still trying to shortcut and make us work with less safety standards than what we the workers would deem reasonable, company has admitted there is no financial benefit in removing the hatchman. Whilst the company is making every effort to move the responsibility and liability to our workers the company should then let us do our job in the safest manner possible not try to pass the liability and cut short the safety resources we have in place at the time with no reason whatsoever except to create tension with the employees and force the employees into working in an unsafe environment without a hatchmen in place.
Stevedoring qualifications / Should the guidance material refer to the qualifications (Cert II, Cert III and Cert IV in Stevedoring) that have been developed for the stevedoring industry?
very necessary
Safety Induction skill-set / Should the newly developed stevedoring ‘safety skill-set’ be used to underpin safety inductions?
complete induction essential
Use of checklists / Should the safety checklists, which set out examples of the types of hazards, and acceptable/unacceptable ways of handling those hazards, be maintained in the guidance material?
specific checklists are needed when they retain decisions that would otherwise be removed when general pointers are used
Comments on the implementation of the national guidance material in each jurisdiction which may have included launches, information and training sessions, and whether it has been useful in the workplace as a resource for improving safety practices.
Section/page no. / Comment
Other comments