ACT schools flunk OH&S knowledge

By JESSICA HENRY
OF THE ten Belconnen schools in Canberra approached by NowUC, only one front desk staff member was able to identify who the Occupational Health and Safety representative was in their school.
Furthermore, most receptionists happily admitted that they didn’t know who the O H and S representative was. Of the ten schools contacted only one was able to respond to the questions put forward by NowUC.
None of the remaining nine schools were able to even give basic information about their O H and S practices, not to mention questions regarding issues as basic as their training.
Participation in the interviewing process was dismal. Schools were asked to provide basic information and figures regarding upgrades that were O H and S related in the past year.
Included in the questions the schools were unable to respond to were; any O H and S issues that were presenting a problem within their school; if the officer had undergone training to fill the position; the dates that they did so; how long they had been in the position; and if they had any concerns regarding how well they could carry out the role as O H and S officer. They were also asked how much money they had spent in their maintenance ledger on O H and S refurbishments in the past 12 months.
The schools were asked for dates of their most recent safety audit and whether or not the officers felt that there training was sufficient.
The schools were asked to provide information regarding whether or not the O H and S officer is supervised and if they were assessed on how adequately they performed in that role. Finally the schools were asked to provide details on about additional changes that might be made to the training for the position, to better equip them for the O H and S responsibilities. The findings give rise to the question: do the safety officers take their job seriously at all?
Each of the schools was contacted repeatedly. In efforts to gain any response from the schools NowUC emailed its questions to the respective officers with no reply but for Kaleen Primary School.
Kaleen was able to answer most of the questions adequately detailing O H and S improvements that it was making after a woman slipped and broke her hip on one of the schools foot paths. Direct numbers relating to how much the school had spent on O H and S improvements was “not for public distribution”.