Occupational Health and Safety Management System

Occupational Health and Safety Management System manual cover and CDSince 1 September 2003 all businesses that employ less than 20 staff have been legally required to have an Occupational Health and Safety Program, just as bigger businesses have had for some time. Penalties for non-compliance are very high.

Fully Revised and Updated

Our Occupational Health & Safety system written specifically for the Landscape Industry has just been updated August 2008. 

First Hand Experience

Lisa Ginns, the founder and proprietor of Living Rooms Landscape Designs, knows firsthand the devastating impact a workplace injury can have on both a business and its staff. In early 2001 Lisa seriously injured her lower back in a preventable workplace accident. It took 18 months for her to recover. Her previous employer had to go through the time consuming and expensive process of finding a replacement for Lisa and is now paying a higher premium for insurance because of the claim made against their workers compensation insurance. The total cost to both Lisa and her previous employer to date has been many thousands of dollars.

Her own experience has made Lisa passionate about the prevention of workplace accidents. However she also has a pragmatic approach to business and understands that a cumbersome, time consuming and expensive risk management system is not a viable solution for small business.

How Our System Helps You

Setting up an OH&S Program for your business can take an enormous amount of time for both you and your staff. The alternative is to use an OH&S consultant to do the work for you but the cost of employing a consultant is can be too high for many small businesses.

Our experience is that most landscapers pave, build and plant in pretty much the same way with only slight differences in tools and techniques.  As a result the OH&S management program will also be pretty much the same from one landscaper to the next.

What our system does is provide you with an OH&S Program framework that allows you to concentrate on the "differences" in how you and your staff approach a job rather than forcing you to develop your own program from scratch. Usually this means much less effort and cost for your business because you don't have to redo things that others have already done (in other words we are applying the good old 80/20 rule to help you).

At the heart of the system is our OH&S Procedures Planning and Instruction Manual. Instructions in the manual guide you through the processes required to develop an effective plan for your business - what to fill in, how to manage consultation with your employees and how to show that you are implementing safe work practices. Included with the instructions are templates for the forms and other policy documents required manage the OH&S risks faced by most landscapers.The manual together with the forms and templates are supplied on A CD-ROM so you can customise the system to produce a Safety Management Plan that reflects your business procedures. Once you have completed each element of the plan it can be saved and printed out on your own stationery. Having your own electronic copies of each document and form makes it much easier for you to update them when your processes and policies change in the future.

Our system addresses the important compliance areas of:

  • Policies and Guidelines
  • Statement of Responsibilities
  • Site Specific Safety Management Plan
  • Occupational Health and Safety Training
  • Incident Management
  • Site Safety Rules
  • Safe Work Method Statements
  • Safe Work Instructions

Compliance

Our system has been produced in consultation with NSW Government officers involved in assessing the Occupational Health & Safety procedures required for Government tenders. No system can provide you with a guarantee that your business will comply with Occupational Health & Safety legislation. What our system aims to do is reduce the time, money and effort that you will have to invest in developing and maintaining an OH&S system that covers the specific needs of your business.

Our system has been designed to help the landscaping industry in NSW. The system may be suitable for businesses operating outside NSW but you should consult with Workcover in your state to ensure that it covers all of the elements required for compliance.

Kit Contents

The Occupational Health and Safety Management System kit contains the following Items:

  • The 139 Page OH&S Procedures Planning and Instruction Manual which includes:
    • Instructions for using the system
    • How to Develop a Site Specific Safety Management Plan
    • Hazard Control and Risk Analysis Guidelines
    • Hazardous Substances Guidelines
    • Site Induction Guidelines
    • Guidelines for developing Safe Work Method Statement
    • Example/pre-completed Safe Work Method Statements for 10 of the most common landscaping activities (Bricklaying, Carpentry, Concreting, Drainage, Garden Maintenance, Irrigation, Paving, PPE, Site Establishment and Soft Landscaping)
    • Guidelines for developing Safe Work Instructions
    • Example/pre-completed Safe Work Method Statements for 44 of the most common common landscaping activities including Manual handling, Working at Height, Using Petrol/Diesel Powered tools, Using Electric Power Tools, using Welding & Gas tools and Using Hazardous Substances.
    • A Detailed Bibliography containing useful references to other resources and Internet links
  • The Occupational Health and Safety Management System CD-ROM which contains Microsoft Word templates for the following documents:
    • OH&S Procedures Planning and Instruction Manual
    • OH&S Policy Statement Template
    • OH&S Safe Work Instructions Templates (for 44 activities)
    • OH&S Safe Work Method Statements Templates (for 10 activities)
    • OH&S Form Templates (contains 19 of the most commonly required OH&S forms including Incident Reporting, Hazardous Materials Register and Employee Skills & Training)

Pricing

The price of the Kit is $550.00 including GST and postage & handling.

Further Information

If you would like further information on the kit you can contact Living Rooms Landscape Designs by telephone, e-Mail or fax

Testimonials

We have found the manual to be thorough, practical and most informative.  The manual covers all landscape activities, their associated hazards, personal protective equipment and includes 'do and don't list' - easy.  The OH&S Manual comes complete with all required forms from sub-contractor agreements, safety checklist right through to injury forms.  We have no hesitation in rec ommending Living Rooms' OH&S Manual.

Jim C Roustas - Glorious Gardens

Descas Landscapes have saved a lot of time by outsourcing this valuable resource.  Unless a business has dedicated administration staff with the specific skills required to prepare such documents, many hours can be wasted.  We have already noticed that our staff have a better understanding of OH&S, and ultimately will be safer in the workplace and on job sites.  Thanks to Living Rooms, you have contributed to keeping our valued team safe in the workplace.

Andrew Descas - Descas Landscapes

Samples

below are three examples that have been made available for download in Adobe PDF format: