Austral Precast

Category four – Most significant improvement to work health and safety performance

Austral Precast, a precast concrete producer, introduced the 'No Harm' program to maintain zero medical treatment and lost time injuries. Culture is a centrepiece of the program, which is based on five Cs:

• Collaboration – Peer reviews of injuries, identification hazards and opportunities for improvement. This has included colleagues from other sites, external auditors and Workplace Health and Safety inspectors.
• Coaching – Buddy systems, increased external training opportunities and monthly training days, ELearning access from smart devices.
• Commitment – Daily safety walks by management, regular behavioural “safe act audits”, the offer of regular health checks for employees, and monthly management reviews of safety targets.
• Communication – Safety display boards, toolbox talks, and hard cards for staff to quickly and easily communicate hazards to the relevant person.
• Celebrations – Workplace events such as BBQs and awards for employees.

The program has improved productivity, reduced staff turnover, decreased industrial action due to safety incidents and led to a reduction of recordable injuries in a short period of time.

Austral Precast has seen progressive improvement in behavioural audit results and achieved a 100 per cent stay at work rate since 2013–14 and 100 per cent final return to work outcome for the last five years.

Regular workplace inspections are undertaken