Who should you report to for unsafe practices that breach hygiene procedures List 4 circumstances when reporting is required?

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Good reporting means:

• systems and procedures are in place for reporting safety issues and incidents
• health and safety issues and incidents are always reported and acted upon
• risk controls are always reviewed following an incident
• you notify us of serious incidents, near misses and fatalities
• reports help you identify issues, why they occurred and how to fix them
• reports help you identify trends, priorities and prevention measures

Talk to your workers before developing or reviewing a reporting procedure, because they witness most of the health and safety issues in your workplace and can help make sure the procedure suits your business.

What to report

• injuries, illnesses and fatalities
• near misses
• damaged or faulty equipment
• housekeeping issues
• health and safety hazards
• suggestions and improvements

Serious and life-threatening hazards must be reported immediately. Call SafeWork NSW immediately on 13 10 50 if there is a:

• death
• serious injury or illness
• potentially dangerous incident

Who to report to

Workers should report health and safety issues to their:

• supervisor
• manager, or
• health and safety representative or health and safety committee

How to report

Workers can raise health and safety issues by:

• talking to a manager or supervisor
• completing a hazard/incident report form
• raising it at a staff meeting

A register should be kept for all issues and incidents.

Who actions reports

Appoint someone to action hazard and incident reports. This could be a supervisor, manager or health and safety representative.

Encourage reporting*

• Train all your workers in the reporting procedure.
• Train your workers to recognise hazards.
• Encourage them to speak up quickly about safety issues.
• Praise them for reporting safety issues, including near misses.
• Encourage regular discussions about opportunities to improve health and safety.
• Consider appointing a health and safety representative or forming a health and safety committee.

Act upon reports

• Let workers know you have received their report, keep them updated on progress, and advise them of the outcome.
• Address the issue immediately, if possible, and track progress until it is resolved.
• Investigate each report to find why it happened - eg if there are any new hazards, if control measures are not working, or if your workers are not following procedures correctly.
• Use effective control measures to manage the risk.
• Review your reports regularly to identify trends.

*Some questions may not apply if you are a sole trader, unless you engage with sub-contractors, labour-hire workers, volunteers, work experience, etc.