One Team, One Vision – Safety! - Glen Eira City Council

Glen Eira is a medium sized council within the inner south east of Melbourne. Its more than 1200 employees serve a vibrant, diverse community of over 123,000 people. The range of services provided is large and diverse, from school crossing supervision and aged care to engineering, town planning or road and parks maintenance. These diverse occupations, disciplines and work sites bring with them a variety of risks and hazards. Councils HSC takes a key and strategic role in ensuring safety in the workplace is a priority for all staff.
With representatives from management and staff from across the organisation the HSC operates as a single focussed team with a single vision of providing every employee a safe environment in which to work.

What are the HSC's key achievements?

The HSC has been instrumental in raising awareness of the importance of safety at work. Staff now really know what this means.

HSC members ‘walk the talk’ - if potential for improvement is identified they make it happen!

They contributed to major improvement projects and remain ready for more. Projects include;
•Road safety of Town Hall car-park involved speed testing, design feedback,
tracking to completion, reviewing results
•Review of driver comfort in fleet vehicles, preventing back strain
•Input into many safety improvements of plant and equipment
•Assistance and support during SafetyMAP audits
•Development and review of OHS policies and procedures

What role do management and workers play in the HSC?

Having no hierarchy, all members work collaboratively to contribute and raise issues. Members come from diverse areas but address local and broader issues. They review critical incidents, act as the forum for issues related to workplace safety or wellbeing, provide input into policy development and review and consider new initiatives and legislative changes.

Between committee meetings HSRs stay in touch with each other for brainstorming and advice or swap experiences so they can identify best practices in their own workplaces.

The committee functions brilliantly as a single team with a common goal, promoting excellence in safety across the organisation.

How does the HSC communicate to its workers and management?

Minutes of HSC meetings are placed on noticeboards at every workplace and on Council’s intranet. Members are always available to workers and management for feedback or advice. They maintain a high profile even use ‘Safety Week’ as an opportunity to offer a Safety Expo for staff.

The HSC ensures the regular staff magazine headlines safety articles, usually as front page news. ‘Good news’ stories are often features of the daily log-on page of Council’s intranet.

The HSC’s excellent relationship with Executive means its monthly critical issues and key data report to them is taken seriously and acted upon.

What makes this HSC outstanding?

The HSC lives a culture of safety as a shared value. It embraces a strategy for continuous improvement no matter how high existing standards are.

The committee members use their networks to gain new knowledge of all things health and safety which they willingly share with the whole organisation.

Through the hard work and commitment of the HSC Council has gained and maintained significant improvement in its safety record over recent years resulting in increased staff morale, record low staff turnover and significant decreases in WorkCover premiums.

The HSC is testament to Council’s ongoing commitment to workplace safety excellence.

*Disclaimer:
The publishing of entries on the WorkSafe Awards website and or/the granting of an award does not constitute any endorsement by WorkSafe Victoria of a product, method or service, or the occupational health and safety performance of the workplace. Monthly Champions must undergo expert review to progress through to the stringent validation and judging process and can only progress to the next stage of entry once WorkSafe are satisfied that the entry/entrant has met the relevant award category criteria and terms and condition of entry.

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