Today’s question comes from a NSW SES volunteer who has been:
… speaking to my volunteer OHS reps about the level of compliance required at our volunteer unit HQ, specifically along the following lines:
Given that most members at the unit are trained in emergency first aid, do I need to formally appoint a first aid officer/s?
Do I need to appoint floor wardens, fire wardens, etc and practice evacuation drills at HQ?
Of course, common sense says to prepare for such events and we are improving our arrangements to reflect this but where is the benchmark for maintaining a safe work environment at volunteer HQ’s?
I’ll assume, without confirming, that the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) applies with full force at the local unit headquarters.
The modern trend in WHS legislation is to move away from standards, and instead impose a risk management obligation on the person conducting the business or undertaking (the PCBU). In this case the PCBU is the NSW SES, not the local unit, so it is incumbent on the agency to determine its approach but, having said that, if we assume for the sake of the argument that the unit is a PCBU we can make an educated assessment of what may be required.
Under the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001 (NSW) (now repealed) an employer who operated a work site with 25 or more employees had to provide trained first aid personnel. Further they had to provide first aid kits that met the standards of First Aid Kit A, B or C depending on the number of workers and whether or not the workplace was a construction site. Rules like this make for easy compliance but are not flexible and do not require the employer to actually think about the risk.
Today the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) requires the PCBU to undertake a risk assessment. With respect to first aid the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 (NSW) r 42 says:
(1) A person conducting a business or undertaking at a workplace must ensure:
(a) the provision of first aid equipment for the workplace, and
(b) that each worker at the workplace has access to the equipment, and
(c) access to facilities for the administration of first aid.
(2) A person conducting a business or undertaking at a workplace must ensure that:
(a) an adequate number of workers are trained to administer first aid at the workplace, or
(b) workers have access to an adequate number of other persons who have been trained to administer first aid.
(3) For the purposes of this clause, the person conducting the business or undertaking must have regard to all relevant matters, including the following:
(a) the nature of the work being carried out at the workplace,
(b) the nature of the hazards at the workplace,
(c) the size and location of the workplace,
(d) the number and composition of the workers and other persons at the workplace.
With respect to emergency evacuation the regulation (r 43) says:
(1) A person conducting a business or undertaking at a workplace must ensure that an emergency plan is prepared for the workplace, that provides for the following:
(a) emergency procedures, including:
(i) an effective response to an emergency, and
(ii) evacuation procedures, and
(iii) notifying emergency service organisations at the earliest opportunity, and
(iv) medical treatment and assistance, and
(v) effective communication between the person authorised by the person conducting the business or undertaking to coordinate the emergency response and all persons at the workplace,
(b) testing of the emergency procedures, including the frequency of testing,
(c) information, training and instruction to relevant workers in relation to implementing the emergency procedures.
(2) A person conducting a business or undertaking at a workplace must maintain the emergency plan for the workplace so that it remains effective.
(3) For the purposes of subclauses (1) and (2), the person conducting the business or undertaking must have regard to all relevant matters, including the following:
(a) the nature of the work being carried out at the workplace,
(b) the nature of the hazards at the workplace,
(c) the size and location of the workplace,
(d) the number and composition of the workers and other persons at the workplace.
(4) A person conducting a business or undertaking at a workplace must implement the emergency plan for the workplace in the event of an emergency.
Again, assuming for the sake of the argument that the Act imposes this obligation down to unit level, one can see what is required. From a first aid point of view if every operational member of the SES is trained in first aid and every SES vehicle and headquarters has an SES first aid kit a local unit controller might reasonably conclude that there is adequate first aid equipment in the headquarters, that everyone can access that equipment and there are sufficient people trained in first aid. It would seem otiose (‘serving no practical purpose or result’) to formally appoint ‘first aid officers’. On the other hand, in a large unit with both operational and headquarters staff, it might be considered that there is a risk that people will be injured, and you don’t want them to delay an operational response so someone who is likely to be in headquarters during operations is to be the first aid officer within the building. The focus should be thinking about the job at hand, the risk and what is a reasonable response to that risk, rather than meeting a fixed or prescribed benchmark.
With respect to emergency procedures and thinking about different SES headquarters that I’ve been to, some are not much more than a garage, others are large multi-story buildings with a number of rooms including store rooms, training rooms and plant rooms. One has to consider things like can the fire alarm be heard in all areas? If there is an evacuation from a single room shed it’s probably easy to see if everyone’s out but if it’s a more complex building it may be prudent to appoint people to check that areas are clear. Having a define assembly area and ensuring that the log on book is collected to mark people ‘out’ would seem prudent. Does this require the appointment of ‘floor wardens, fire wardens, etc and practice evacuation drills’? Again, that requires a risk assessment considering the factors listed at r 43(3) above. The answer won’t be the same for each local unit HQ.
Conclusion
Modern WHS legislation does not impose minimum standards for first aid or evacuation planning. It requires the PCBU to develop policies, procedures and practices that meet the Act’s overriding obligation of ensuring health and safety at work.
In this post I have assumed that although the PCBU is the NSW SES the obligations in the Act and its Regulations apply with full force at unit level and with the Unit Controller as holding the duties of the PCBU. If that assumption is correct (and I don’t say it is) it demonstrates what is required.
It is not that a unit controller must appoint first aid officers and floor and fire wardens. It’s that the unit controller in consultation with the members must think about those things and identify whether or not the requirements are met. Are there adequate first aid facilities? Are there adequate emergency procedures and do people know what they are? What adequate looks like can vary from unit to unit taking into account the size of the unit, the type of work they do, the nature of their buildings etc.
Australian Emergency Law 
Comment: Would the Unit be exempt from the WHS legislation because they are “all volunteers” and because the Local Unit does is structured as a seperate “unit” ( based on local government boundaries / locality) and they do not pay staff, they are exempt as being a “volunteer identity”. What’s your view on this please. Stuart Davies Dubbo, NSW
Sent from my iPhone
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No, and yes. No the unit is not exempt from the WHS laws. A volunteer association is not a PCBU. A volunteer association is ‘a group of volunteers working together for one or more community purposes where none of the volunteers, whether alone or jointly with any other volunteers, employs any person to carry out work for the volunteer association’. A local unit is not a volunteer association as it is not a seperate legal entity. Units are established by the Commissioner (State Emergency Service Act 1989 (NSW) s 18) and are part and parcel of the SES. The SES is not a volunteer association as there are many paid staff. So no, the unit is not exempt from WHS on the basis that members are volunteers because a unit is not an entity seperate from the NSW SES.
But the units are not the PCBU, the SES is. So it’s the responsibility of the SES to ensure that across its operations there are adequate first aid and emergency procedures. The SES may well, in fact has determined, that all operational members must have first aid qualifications and that all SES vehicles have first aid kits and it may well determine that is sufficient to meet the agencies obligations under the WHS Act. The unit controller as a volunteer is only required to take reasonable steps for his or her own safety and implement the agencies WHS directives, not take on the responsibilities of the PCBU (WHS Act s 34). So yes, at local level, units are not required to manage compliance with WHS on behalf of the SES but to implement the WHS requirements of the SES.
In the post above, I assumed away those issues – in essence I assumed the local unit controller was a PCBU (he or she is not) – in order to demonstrate the reasoning that applies under the Act. Even though the controller is not a PCBU he or she is ‘responsible for the control and co-ordination of the activities of SES units in the relevant local government area’ (SES Act s 17) and should, in the exercise of his or her duties, consider the issues raised by the post even though ultimate responsibility if there is a failure to have in place adequate first aid or emergency procedures will fall to the SES.