Call for entries for 2010 WorkSafe Victoria Awards

WorkSafe has recently issued an invitation to Victorian businesses to submit nominations for the 2010 WorkSafe Victoria Awards.

WorkSafe's Acting Executive Director for Health and Safety, Stan Krpan, said WorkSafe is interested in hearing from small businesses which have made changes to improve health and safety in their workplace: “Many workplace health and safety issues can be dealt with effectively, quickly and with relatively little expense, while delivering great benefits. People are doing great things, being innovative to meet their particular issues, but don’t realise they’re ahead of the pack.

“Whether you're a health and safety representative, Victoria's smallest company or the biggest, a farmer who has created a safety solution or a designer who has eliminated a risk, WorkSafe wants to hear from you.”

Last year’s Health and Safety Representative of the Year, Phyl Hilton, who has been a health and safety representative at Toyota’s Altona plant for nearly 11 years, added: “Being a health and safety rep has been very rewarding. My blokes know how to stand up for themselves and to speak up in the workplace. The young apprentices that I work with aren’t afraid to question health and safety risks - and they’ll pass this attitude on to other people they work with.”

Last year’s Best Design Award went to Dan Mawby, who designed a plastic running rail for racecourses that bends on impact. The plastic rail, used by Racing Victoria, has replaced solid aluminium rails at Flemington and Caulfield.

“I was presented with a problem and it was relatively simple to come up with a solution to make it safer. I had to take a step back and looked at what is safe for jockeys, horses and track staff relocating the rails. If you try something and it doesn’t work, you just have to keep refining it until it does,” Mawby said.

The categories for the 2010 WorkSafe Victoria Awards are:

• Best OHS Management System;
• Best Solution to an Identified Workplace Health and Safety Issue;
• Best Health and Safety Initiative in a Small Business;
• Health and Safety Representative of the Year; and
• Health and Safety Committee of the Year.

To download the information pack, visit worksafe.vic.gov.au/awards or email awards@worksafe.vic.gov.au. Applications close 7 May.