National Program Making A Difference
Victual recently presented at Brewcon, that national conference for independent brewers hosted by the Independent Brewers Association, this year held in Melbourne. The presentation highlighted that IBASafe is very much a national program, with a wide spread of breweries involved in the program from around the country.
Some high-level numbers about the IBASafe program were also presented and it was great to see there had been no loss time injuries from any of the members participating in the IBASafe program. Some of the other take a way messages, were:
- 10% of the IBA members are now involved in the program;
- As part of the program so far, there have been 179 corrective actions identified (37% closed), these improvements and additional controls are effectively making the breweries a safer work environment;
- Victual have helped several brewers achieve valuable injury management outcomes from pre-existing claims, with some breweries reducing their Workers Compensation premium by 50%.
The presentation included a panel of brewers that are participating in IBASafe. There was some great feedback regarding the IBASafe program from the panelists from Prancing Pony, Willie the Boatman and Felons, whom have all embarked on making their breweries a safer place to work over the last 12 months. Three specific topics discussed as a part of the panel, were:
Chain of Responsibility – Know your role
The CoR law changes in 2018 are to ensure everyone in the supply chain shares responsibility to comply with the National Heavy Vehicle Law (NHVL). If you have control or influence over your transport tasks, you have a responsibility to ensure your supply chain complies with the NHVL. This is equally relevant for brewers as for other industries.
Multiple parties may be responsible for offences committed by the drivers and operators of heavy vehicles. Brewers may have multiple roles in the supply chain as the heavy vehicle operator and the consigner of goods going out and the consignee of raw materials and other products (such as imported vessels).
Breweries should review logistics contracts, verify compliance with operators and know your role in the chain.
Plant & Equipment
A discussion was had on managing the hazards around plant and equipment, with a focus on vessels. Key take outs were:
- The requirement to register pressure vessels and other critical plant;
- Certification of Pressure Vessels; and
- ‘End User’ Plant Risk Assessments of plant
Manual Handling
Body stressing is the type of injury which makes up the greatest number of workers compensation claims according to data from iCare in NSW. It is a reasonable assumption that given the similar nature of breweries around Australia, this is typical of all jurisdictions.
So, understanding the Task, Individual, Load and Environment (TILE) when assessing manual tasks is critical to mitigating this risk. This can now be made easier, through the use of wearable sensors and software to identify stresses during typical tasks. Victual analyse the data from the sensors to make recommendations that will help reduce the risk of injury through manual tasks and fatigue.
Would you like to know more?
Please call Nick Duffy on 0481 431 117 if you have a question regarding safety in your brewery.