Today’s correspondent works

… as a private industry Emergency Services Officer we provide Firefighting, Technical rescue & first aid response currently in the Qld mining sector

My question is who’s if any jurisdiction/ legislated authority do we fall under when performing a rescue? we have team members from all over the nation trained in the same Australian Qualifications Framework PUA& RII competencies however execute them as we have been trained differently.  What governing body if any would dictate the standards to which we would respond to an emergency?

Is it down to an Employer obligation to develop safe work guidelines for our response procedures or do we just follow how we were initially individually trained & work it out along the way?

I suppose an example I would point to would be ClinicalPractice Guidelines for paramedics, they provide the scope for which the paramedics operate within both for state & private services, is there anything like this that we would follow, I believe the QFES is the only legislated authority in QLD to perform rescues does this mean we should be following their standards?

The answer is you fall under your employers or more accurately, the Person Conducting the Business or Undertaking’s authority. The Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld) 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.

Penalty: Maximum penalty—60 penalty units.

(2) A person conducting a business or undertaking at a workplace must maintain the emergency plan for the workplace so that it remains effective.

Penalty: Maximum penalty—60 penalty units.

(3) For subsections (1) and (2) , the person conducting the business or undertaking must have regard to all relevant matters including—

(a) the nature of the work being carried out at the workplace; and

(b) the nature of the hazards at the workplace; and

(c) the size and location of the workplace; and

(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.

Penalty: Maximum penalty—60 penalty units.

Similar obligations exist under the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 (Qld).  With respect to mines the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Regulation 2017 (Qld) r 38 says

(2) The site senior executive must ensure the mine has the following things as are appropriate, having regard to the nature and complexity of the mine’s operations—

(a) facilities or procedures for—

(i) persons, and using equipment, on-site; and

(ii) liaising with, and using, local or state emergency services;

(b) if the nature or remoteness of the mine’s operations limit the effectiveness of local or state emergency services—

(i) the availability of suitably trained site-based persons and suitable rescue equipment; and

(ii) facilities and procedures for liaising with, and using, persons and equipment from other operations and agencies for carrying out a rescue.

(3) The site senior executive must ensure reasonable action is taken to rescue persons from an area of unacceptable risk, or a refuge, at the mine.

(4) In deciding what action is reasonable for subsection(3) , the site senior executive must have regard to the risk to persons in carrying out the rescue.

Further r 41 says:

(1) The site senior executive must ensure the mine has a current rescue plan showing the mine’s emergency facilities, including relevant services reticulation and communication arrangements.

(2) For an underground mine, the plan must also show the following things—

(a) the direction and quantity of the ventilating airflow;

(b) the location of ventilation controls.

(3) In an emergency, the site senior executive must make available to the persons carrying out the rescue a sufficient number of copies of the plan at a scale suitable for use by the persons in the emergency.

Under the Work Health and Safety legislation and the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health legislation the obligation to assess the risk and to determine the appropriate response lies with the operator of the work site.  And every work site will be different, so it is up to the operator, in consultation with workers, to determine how to conduct rescues and other emergency procedures taking into account the risk, the nature of the work, the nature of the site, the distance to other assistance etc. 

If it is discovered that employees have different understanding of ‘best practice’ given their different training, then it’s up to the employer (with consultation and no doubt guidance from crew leaders) to determine local procedures. 

When it comes to rescue in Queensland, there is no equivalent to the New South Wales State Rescue Board (established by the State Emergency and Rescue Management Act 1989 (NSW)) to authorise rescue squads and set out equipment levels.  Even there that Act applies to rescue squads that provide if you like ‘public’ rescue facilities that is respond via police to triple zero rescue calls (see s 52 definition of ‘rescue unit’). The Board is not governing or setting standards for industry rescue squads but sensibly an organisation would look to State Rescue Board standards when thinking about their own local rescue requirements. 

There are no ‘Clinical Practice Guidelines for paramedics, [that] provide the scope for which the paramedics operate within both for state & private services’.   The Queensland Ambulance Service Clinical Practice Manual sets out ‘contemporary standards of clinical practice’ but it only applies to Queensland Ambulance.   The Ambulance Service Act 1991 (Qld) governs the management of Queensland Ambulance.  With the exception of s 43 (Unauthorised ambulance transport) it does not govern private ambulance providers. 

Equally the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service is established by the Fire And Emergency Services Act 1990 (Qld).  There is nothing to say ‘QFES is the only legislated authority in QLD to perform rescues’.  Under that Act a person may be appointed as an authorised rescue officer (s 148).  Authorised rescue officers may exercise powers ‘to protect— (a) a person who is trapped, or endangered in another way, in a place; or (b) the officer or another person from danger, potential danger or assault’. Those powers will be relevant if QFES attend an industrial site, but they do not govern the operations of an industrial rescue team.  As with the NSW situation however, a prudent business operator may look to QFES as the leader in the field to identify what is required in terms of training and equipment.

Conclusion

The question was, in summary,

whose if any jurisdiction/ legislated authority do we fall under when performing a rescue? Is it down to an Employer obligation to develop safe work guidelines for our response procedures or do we just follow how we were initially individually trained & work it out along the way?

The answer is that it is the employer’s obligation to ensure the workplace has adequate emergency and rescue facilities and plans so the industrial rescue team is working under the employer’s authority. It is indeed up to the employer to ensure that the rescue team works – whether that requires formal safe work guidelines for response procedures allowing the team to work it out along the way depends on the risks involved.