Safety inductions are a legal requirement
All employers, skippers, supervisors and managers need to ensure their team undertakes a safety induction before commencing their roles and that they participate in regular updates and refresher sessions.
Employers, also legally known as a ‘person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU),’ is a broad term that includes a broader collective of people involved in the business. While frontline managers are obvious, you may also be a PCBU if you are a director of a fishing company, or owner of a fishing vessel, even if you don’t do any of the actual fishing.
Employers must give their workers the information, tools, training and instructions they need to do their jobs safely, and ensure they are updated as systems change – as well as over time to ensure they are always current.
This must be written into a Safety Management System (SMS).
The SMS should be easy to understand and cover topics including:
- hazards and associated risks
- safe work procedures and practices including the use of personal protective equipment
- communication protocols
- emergency procedures
- workplace facilities.
Employers must train workers for their specific tasks in the operational situation (eg on board)
Before your workers start their jobs, it’s important that they have supervised hands-on training in the tasks they’ll be performing. This training must be suitable and relevant to:
- the nature of the work carried out by the worker
- the nature of the risks associated with the work at the time the information, training or information was provided, and the control measures implemented to mitigate such risks.
Training should be tailored and fit-for-purpose. It should not be a ‘tick-the-box’ exercise
Examples of work that may require higher levels of information, training, instruction or supervision are:
- working in confined spaces (eg engine rooms or freezers)
- working at heights (eg A-frame, trawl booms)
- working at riskier environments (eg at sea)
- working with hazardous chemicals
- remote or isolated work (eg at sea for long periods of time).
Employers must provide supervision and ongoing training
The most important part of training is following up. Make a point to regularly observe your workers to check that they’re still following safe work procedures. Conduct informal discussions, or crew talks, to engage with workers on specific health and safety issues. You should also encourage workers to provide feedback.
Employers must keep training records
You are responsible for maintaining records of the education, training and supervision for each worker. There are checklists to help you with your orientation and training programs. These checklists can serve as documentation that confirms training has taken place.
Employers must train supervisors
There may be workers in your organisation that are supervising their co-workers, even though they are not referred to as a supervisor (eg master of a vessel, leading hand/mate). Before you ask any worker to take on supervisory tasks, you need to ensure they understand and have received training on a supervisor’s responsibilities for health and safety.