Introducing the Northern Territory Work Health and Safety Regulator
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NT WorkSafe is responsible for workplace health and safety, workers' compensation, electricity safety, dangerous goods, and radioactive materials in the Northern Territory of Australia. Its vision is to promote healthy, safe, and productive work lives for Territory workers. It is changing its approach due to six work-related fatalities in 2019-2020 and over 1,900 accepted claims for injuries, with construction, health services, government administration, agriculture, and hospitality identified as priority industries with the highest risks. NT WorkSafe's strategic objectives include reducing harm, building capability, securing compliance, evidence-based practice, effective regulation, and continuous improvement.
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Introducing the Northern Territory Work Health and Safety Regulator
- 1. NT WorkSafe – a new approach Strategic Plan 2021 – 2022
- 2. About us Responsible for: • Workplace health and safety • Workers’ rehabilitation and compensation • Electricity safety • Dangerous goods • Radioactive ores and concentrates Our vision Healthy, safe and productive working lives for Territory workers.
- 3. Northern Territory context Area: 1,420,970 km2 Population: 244,761 Workforce: 126,875 Top 5 industries by workforce %: • Public administration and safety 16.7% • Health care and social assistance 15.8% • Education 9.7% • Retail 8.8% • Construction 8.2%
- 4. Why change our approach? • 6 work-related fatalities in 2019-20 • 1914 accepted claims in 2019-20 o 580 (30.3%) were serious injury claims • 5 year fatality rates • Impacts of workplace injuries and fatalities in 2019-20 o 11,940 working days were lost o $40,710,100 paid in entitlements
- 5. Priority industries • Construction • Health and community services • Government administration and defence • Agriculture, forestry and fishing • Accommodation, cafes and restaurants
- 7. Strategic objectives • Reduce harm • Build capability • Secure compliance • Evidence-based practice • Effective regulatory frameworks • Continuous improvement
- 8. Where to from here? • NT WorkSafe Strategic Plan 2021-22 • Annual reporting • Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-22 • National Return to Work Strategy 2020-30
- 9. Questions? • Thank you for your time!
Editor's Notes
- Introduce yourself – brief overview of your history. Started at NT WorkSafe in June 2020. NT WorkSafe is a division under the Department of the Attorney-General and Justice. Primarily a Regulator, we monitor and enforce compliance with our legislation. We educate, advise, and encourage compliance; investigate breaches and take action for non-compliance. Ultimately, we want the NT to be the safest place for workers – less injuries and less fatalities.
- Data is taken from the (former) Department of Trade, Business and Innovation labour market statistics and economy snapshot from June 2020. The NT is a big place, with a widely dispersed population. The majority of businesses and workers are located in the Greater Darwin region, with a significant number located in Alice Springs, some concentration in the Katherine region and the rest dispersed across other regional and remote areas. NT WorkSafe has offices in Darwin, Alice Springs and Katherine to try to provide reasonable coverage of the whole NT.
- One death is too many – in 2019-20 there were 6 work-related fatalities which fell under the jurisdiction of NT WorkSafe. Six families had to mourn a loved one. Serious injury claims are for injuries requiring at least a week off work. For the last few years, the NT fatality rates have been the highest in Australia. Although we are a small population, making our rates very volatile, this is a concern. The wider impacts of workplace injuries and fatalities are harder to quantify, but include indirect costs such as lost productivity, loss of current and future earnings, lost potential output and the cost of providing social welfare programs for injured or incapacitated workers; as well as non-financial costs such as the psychological impact on friends, family and the community.
- 2019-20 workers’ compensation statistics identified that these 5 industries account for nearly 60% of serious injury claims in the NT. These industries will be the subject of targeted strategies, aimed at preventing workplace fatalities, injuries and disease.
- The four key risk areas are overrepresented in serious injury and fatality data in the NT, These four key risk areas will become the focus of our education and compliance campaigns. We will prioritise early intervention activities, designed to eliminate or minimise these risks, and take action to secure compliance wherever necessary. By increasing our proactive and targeted activities, we will aim to reduce the number of workplace fatalities and serious injuries in the Northern Territory.
- Reduce harm - once discovered, we have an obligation to make sure risks of harm are eliminated or minimised, providing the highest level of protection against harm as reasonably practicable; and to ensure the actions we take to administer our legislation do not themselves cause harm. Build capability – both within NT WorkSafe to ensure our staff have the skills and knowledge to perform effectively, and as an outward-facing role to make sure duty holders understand their duties, and are able to comply with them. Secure compliance – we have a range of tools available to help us secure compliance and take action in line with the national compliance and enforcement policy. At the lowest level, this starts with providing education and advice to encourage compliance; moving to directing compliance through the issue of improvement and prohibition notices; to taking more serious action by suspending or cancelling authorisations, issuing infringement notices, prosecuting breaches and accepting enforceable undertakings. Evidence-based practice – we need to make sure we prioritise our work, taking a risk-based approach, and focusing on the industries and risks that cause the most harm to Territory workers. We have analysed our data to identify those priority areas and will continue to do so moving forward, to ensure we use our resources as effectively as we can to improve safety for Territory workers. This may result in lower-risk incidents and complaints no longer receiving the same level of action as they have in the past. We will need to manage this, and any perceptions this may create within and outside NT WorkSafe. Effective regulatory frameworks – we have to make sure our regulatory frameworks, such as our laws, supportive mechanisms and our authorisation processes are effective and capture new and evolving ways of working. We will continue to participate in national forums to ensure consistency in the application and interpretation of harmonised laws as far as possible. Continuous improvement – we are committed to improving our effectiveness as a regulator, and achieving improved outcomes for Territorians. We will reflect on what we have done, consider where we are heading, and take action to address areas we need to improve in.
- The NT WorkSafe Strategic Plan 2021-2022 is being finalised. Once completed it will be published. We will report on our progress against the strategy in our Annual Report. We will publish annual NT-specific work health and safety data, and use it to identify our priorities. We will participate in the development of the next Australian WHS Strategy and develop a longer-term NT WorkSafe Strategy in support of it, and the National Return to Work Strategy 2020-2030.
- The NT WorkSafe Strategic Plan 2021-2022 is being finalised. Once completed it will be published. We will report on our progress against the strategy in our Annual Report. We will publish annual NT-specific work health and safety data, and use it to identify our priorities. We will participate in the development of the next Australian WHS Strategy and develop a longer-term NT WorkSafe Strategy in support of it, and the National Return to Work Strategy 2020-2030.