OH&S (MI) Act Incident Reports for the Period 2002/03-2007/08

This is the latest in a series of five year rolling reports produced by AMSA and reporting on an analysis of the incident reports lodged by employers over the period. The first report covered the period from 1994-1997 as the application of the OH&S(MI) Act commenced from 1 July 1994. The report has been designed to detect and analyse trends to enable AMSA to develop and implement strategies that will reduce the incidence of employment related injury and disease to Australian seafarers serving on ships to which Part II of the Navigation Act 1912 applies and declared ships.

Contents

Analysis of reports | Location of Incidents | Number of Injuries by Age Group | Number of Incidents per Month | Number of Injuries per Rank | Number of Incidents per Ship Type | Mechanism of Incidents | Agency of Incident | Nature of Incident | Incident Rates | Bodily Location of Incident

Analysis of incident reports for the period 2002/03-2007/08

Introduction

AMSA performs the Inspectorate role under the Occupational Health & Safety (Maritime Industry) Act 1993 for the Seafarers’ Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Authority (Seacare). The role includes responsibility for:

1. Ensuring that the requirement to report serious personal injuries, deaths and dangerous occurrences and other obligations imposed by or under the Act and the regulations are complied with;
2. Advising operators, employees and contractors on occupational health and safety matters; and
3. Providing Seacare with information.

AMSA marine surveyors are trained in occupational health and safety as well as the requirements of the Act. As Inspectors appointed under the Act, they perform a range of functions, including investigation of accidents and dangerous occurrences, issuing improvement and prohibition notices and advising employers on their duty of care, approaches to safety and effective injury prevention.

The number of incidents reported to AMSA during the 2007/08 year was 50, compared with 55 during 2006/07. This represents a reduction in the incident rate from 0.97% to 0.78%.

The overall trend continues downward since the introduction of the Act. The incident rate in the first full year of operation (1994/95) was 3.56%.

Activities of the OH&S inspectorate during the year

The development of targets and initiatives for the Inspectorate continues. These initiatives and targets will be implemented and aimed at Inspectorate functions, such as:

• Awareness raising including publication distribution and presentations to maritime and other relevant industry groups;
• Improvement of OHS performance that will be measurable;
• Continual improvement processes to be introduced on all procedures and Instructions to Inspectors;
• Targeted inspection regimes on Ships/owners and operators;
• Clarify boundaries between the Maritime Industry and the Offshore Industry; and
• Increase communication with ship owners and operators.

The current OHS(MI) audit scheme been enhanced. The current inspection scheme audits conducted on Australian prescribed ships are on an annual basis. The previous audit scheme worked extremely well by raising awareness of OHS issues and the OHS(MI) Act onboard ships and the new audit scheme has incorporated a higher level of compliance to the OHS(MI) Act, a closer inspection of risk assessment, hazard identification and review processes and awareness/education programs/presentations for ships, operators and owners. The Inspectorate is including within the revised audit scheme a mechanism to include a program for targeted inspections. Initially this will encompass education and awareness raising for issues that are commonly faced on board ships. Ship operators and owners will be contacted to inform them of the proposals for a targeted inspections regime and changes to the OHS(MI) inspection regime. This will enable the Inspectorate to have greater contact with the maritime industry.

Engagement of the Offshore Industry has been a recent focus. AMSA has been dealing with companies that operate standby vessels, supply vessels, seismic vessels and in some ships that are not primarily for the offshore industry but are still operated by an offshore company. Engagement has been presentations to the operators either through industry forums or direct contact such as the Safe Marine for Offshore Conference. AMSA has made the presentation widely available to the industry and have spoken directly to a company regarding this type of information. The discussions have centred around the requirements the Navigation Act, the OHS(MI) Act, reporting of incidents, Marine Order 50 for special purpose ships and Marine Order 60 for Offshore support vessel operations.

Analysis of incidents

Injuries resulting from body stressing, falls, slips and trips, being hit by moving objects and hitting objects with a part of the body accounts for 76% of all injuries. This is on the same as last year. Slips, trips and falls and body stressing should receive increased attention as significant improvement in these types of injury would substantially reduce the overall number of incidents.

Machinery, non-powered hand tools, appliances and equipment accounted for 54% of the incidents, an increase on last year but still in line with previous years. Correct use of equipment and tools, perhaps with employers ensuring that seafarers are fully trained and competent on the full range in use, might be an area for action.

The number of incidents involving integrated ratings during the year has reduced considerably from 51% last year to 30% indicating that attempts to increase risk awareness in this category of seafarers have been successful.

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Location of Incidents

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Number of Incidents by Age Group

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Monthly Incidents

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Incidents by Rank

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Incidents by Ship Type

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Mechanism of Incidents

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Agency of Incident

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Nature of Incident

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Bodily Location of Incident

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