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Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents
Minimum Standards for
Reporting Health and
Safety Incidents
Author: Martin McMullan | Manager, Zero Harm
April 2015
VERSION 1
Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents
Copyright information
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publication and the NZ Transport Agency as the source. Requests and enquiries about the reproduction of
material in this publication for any other purpose should be made to:
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Wellington 6141
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Disclaimer
The NZ Transport Agency has endeavoured to ensure material in this document is technically accurate and
reflects legal requirements. However, the document does not override governing legislation. The NZ
Transport Agency does not accept liability for any consequences arising from the use of this document. If
the user of this document is unsure whether the material is correct, they should refer directly to the
relevant legislation and contact the NZ Transport Agency.
More information
NZ Transport Agency
December 2014
If you have further queries, call our contact centre on 0800 699 000 or write to us:
NZ Transport Agency
Private Bag 6995
Wellington 6141
This document is available on the NZ Transport Agency’s website at www.nzta.govt.nz
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Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents
DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT PLAN
Purpose
This management plan outlines the updating procedures and contact points for the document.
Document information
DOCUMENT NAME
Minimum Standard for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents
DOCUMENT NUMBER
ZHMS-02
DOCUMENT
AVAILABILITY
This document is located in electronic form on the NZ Transport Agency’s
website at www.nzta.govt.nz.
DOCUMENT OWNER
Martin McMullan | Manager, Zero Harm – NZ Transport Agency
DOCUMENT SPONSOR
Martin McMullan | Manager, Zero Harm – NZ Transport Agency
Amendments and review strategy
All corrective action/improvement requests (CAIRs) suggesting changes will be acknowledged by the
document owner. Amendments
(minor revisions)
Review
(major revisions)
Notification
COMMENTS
FREQUENCY
Updates incorporated immediately they occur.
As required
Amendments fundamentally changing the content or structure of
the document will be incorporated as soon as practicable. They
may require coordinating with the review team timetable.
Two yearly
All users that have registered their interest by email to
zeroharm@nzta.govt.nz will be advised by email of amendments
and updates.
Immediately
Other information (at document owner’s discretion)
There will be occasions, depending on the subject matter, when amendments will need to be worked
through by the review team before the amendment is actioned. This may cause some variations to the
above noted time frames.
NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY
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Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents
RECORD OF AMENDMENT
AMENDMENT NUMBER
NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY
DESCRIPTION OF CHANGE
EFFECTIVE DATE
UPDATED BY
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Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This document provides a minimum standard for reporting any health and safety incidents that may occur
on a NZ Transport Agency project. It has been produced in consultation with an industry working group
representing contractors and designers as part of the Transport Agency Zero Harm Programme.
The industry working group included:
•
•
•
•
•
Martin McMullan | Manager, Zero Harm – NZ Transport Agency
Martin Hughes | Growth and Construction Manager – Transfield Services
Wade To | Wellington and South Island Manager – Brian Perry Civil / Fletcher
Michele Berry | Zero Harm Coordinator – NZ Transport Agency
Zero Harm Industry Group Members
Contact us
Zero Harm – NZ Transport Agency
E: zeroharm@nzta.govt.nz
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Minimum Standards for Reporting Health and Safety Incidents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Benefit of having a minimum standard ...................................................................................... 1
2. Zero Harm Incident Reporting Tool .............................................................................................. 1
3. Responsibilities ............................................................................................................................ 1
4. Reporting health and safety incidents ......................................................................................... 2
4.1 Health and Safety Incident Reporting Framework ...................................................................... 3
4.2 Immediate work actions following a Class 1 incident ................................................................. 4
5. Incident Investigation Report ....................................................................................................... 4
5.1 Who should carry out the investigation ..................................................................................... 4
5.2 Reporting timeframes ............................................................................................................... 4
5.3 Exemptions ............................................................................................................................... 5
5.4 Lessons Learnt .......................................................................................................................... 5
6. Monthly Reporting ........................................................................................................................ 6
Appendices
Appendix A: ........................................................................................................................................ 7
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1. INTRODUCTION
One of the NZ Transport Agency’s goals is to achieve Zero Harm by 2020, while supporting the
government’s objective to reduce workplace fatalities and serious harm by 25%.
This document provides a minimum standard for reporting any health, safety or environmental incidents
that may occur on a NZ Transport Agency project. It must be used by all contractors working on physical
works projects including network outcomes contracts, capital projects and maintenance and emergency
works projects. Professional service contractors must also adhere to this minimum standard when they are
involved in work on the State Highway Network or Transport Agency construction sites.
1.1 Benefit of having a minimum standard
The Transport Agency uses statistical information on the cause of incidents to make informed decisions on
how to improve the health and safety of its staff and supply chain.
A minimum standard on reporting will provide the Transport Agency with consistent and timely reporting
of incidents. This allows for more accurate tracking of trends that impact health and safety of those
involved with Transport Agency projects.
There are many benefits for having a minimum reporting standard. These include:
• Consistency across all Agency projects
• Enables benchmarking of both lead and lag indicator performance
• Sets an expectation for us all to follow.
2. ZERO HARM INCIDENT REPORTING TOOL
Any health and safety incident that occurs on a NZ Transport Agency project must be reported on a project
basis using the Zero Harm Incident Reporting Tool. This tool is a simple to use, intuitive reporting system
that allows for real-time reporting incidents. It also allows contractors to easily produce consistent monthly
health and safety performance reports for the Transport Agency.
The tool was developed in consultation with an industry working group. The Zero Harm Industry
Leadership Group agreed that generic reporting data would be shared across the supply chain to
demonstrate trends and share lessons learnt so that industry health and safety standards can improve.
It can be accessed through this link: http://nztareporting.azurewebsites.net/.
A login and password can be obtained by emailing zeroharm@nzta.govt.nz or by requesting one on the
reporting website.
If you need help using the Zero Harm Incident Reporting Tool please email zeroharm@nzta.govt.nz, or
follow the instructions and troubleshooting guide on the site.
3. RESPONSIBILITIES
The principal contractor’s project manager is responsible for reporting on the contract’s health and safety
performance by the 9th of the following month using the Zero Harm Incident Reporting Tool. The task may
be delegated, however ultimate responsibility remains with the project manager.
It is also the responsibility of the principal contractor’s project manager to report any incident as per the
reporting timeframes detailed in section 4 of this document.
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4. REPORTING HEALTH AND SAFETY INCIDENTS
When a health and safety incident occurs on a Transport Agency project, the contractor must immediately
evaluate the event and categorise the incident severity as either Class 1 or 2.
Class 1 incidents are those that result in a fatality, a serious harm or notifiable incident, or a dangerous
occurrence or potential serious near hit/miss.
Class 2 incidents include lost time injuries, or an incident requiring medical treatment.
When the incident has been classified, the contractor must then notify the Transport Agency as specified
in the notification summary below.
Incident
Severity
Class
Class 1
Incident Classification
Notification timeframe
Method
Fatality / Death
As soon as practicable but
within 4 hours
Phone & email NZTA Project or
Contract Manager, enter into
NZTA Online reporting tool
Serious Harm or Notifiable
Incident
As soon as practicable but
within 24 hours
Phone & email NZTA Project or
Contract Manager, enter into
NZTA Online reporting tool
Dangerous Occurrence,
Potential Serious Near Hit /
Miss
As soon as practicable but
within 24 hours
Phone & email NZTA Project or
Contract Manager, enter into
NZTA Online reporting tool
Lost Time Injury
As soon as practicable but
within 48 hours
Phone & email NZTA Project or
Contract Manager, enter into
NZTA Online reporting tool
Medical Treatment
Within 72 hours
Phone & email NZTA Project or
Contract Manager, enter into
NZTA Online reporting tool
Class 2
The Health and Safety Incident Reporting Framework (section 4.1) outlines how each incident must be
reported in full.
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4.1 Health and Safety Incident Reporting Framework
Incident Occurs
Contractor Evaluates
Incident
Class 1
Class 2
Fatality
Serious Harm or
Notifiable Incident
Dangerous Occurrence/
Potential Serious Near
Miss
Lost Time Injury
Medical
Treatment
Contractor notifies WSNZ
& NZTA as soon as
practicable (within 4 hrs)
Contractor notifies WSNZ
& NZTA as soon as
practicable (within 24 hrs)
Contractor notifies NZTA
as soon as practicable
(within 24 hrs)
Contractor notifies NZTA
as soon as practicable
(within 48 hours)
Contractor notifies NZTA
as soon as practicable
(within 72 hours)
Contractor records
incident in NZTA reporting
tool (within 24 hrs)
Contractor records incident
in NZTA reporting tool
(within 48 hours)
Contractor records
incident in NZTA
reporting tool
(within 72 hours)
Contractor records incident
in NZTA reporting tool
(within 24 hrs)
Contractor provides written
notice to WSNZ (within 7
days)
Contractor investigates &
reports lessons learnt &
corrective action to NZTA
(within 4 weeks)
Contractor investigates &
reports initial assessment
to NZTA (within 14 days)
Contractor investigates and
reports initial assessment to
NZTA (within 4 weeks)
Contractor provides
findings, causes and
lessons learnt to NZTA
(within 30 days)
Contractor provides
investigation final report to
NZTA (within 3 months)
Contractor advises NZTA
lessons learnt & plan for
short & long term corrective
action
Where appropriate NZTA
will publish a Safety Alert
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4.2 Immediate work actions following a Class 1 incident
The below immediate work actions apply for all Class 1 incidents.
Fatality/Death
In the event of a fatality, all work on that project must be suspended immediately. Work must not resume
until an assessment of risk is undertaken, and authorisation is given by the Highways & Network
Operations General Manager, in consultation with the Zero Harm Manager.
Serious Harm or Notifiable Incident
In the event of a workplace serious harm or notifiable incident, work must be suspended immediately on
that equipment/work area. Work must not resume until an appropriate assessment of risk is undertaken
and authorisation is given by the NZTA Project Manager, in consultation with the Zero Harm Manager.
Dangerous Occurrence, Potential Serious Near Hit/Miss
In the event of a workplace dangerous occurrence or potential serious near hit/miss, the contractor must
investigate the incident and associated equipment/work area to ensure that work can safely continue.
5. INCIDENT INVESTIGATION REPORT
All Class 1 and 2 health and safety incidents must be formally investigated and reported. It is imperative
that comprehensive data on incidents are captured and recorded in the investigation report.
The contractor must provide sufficient resources to enable an appropriate level of investigations so that all
essential factors are recorded. Lessons learnt must be identified and communicated promptly. The level of
detail of these investigations, and who forms the investigation team, should be appropriate to the incident
severity class. All findings must have substantive documentation.
At a minimum, the investigation report must include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Date and location of incident
Summary of events
Immediate cause of incident
Underlying cause of incident
Root cause of incident
Immediate action taken
Human factors
Outcome of incident e.g. severity of harm caused, injury, damage
Potential consequences
Corrective actions with clearly defined timelines and people responsible for implementation
Recommendation for further improvement
5.1 Who should carry out the investigation
A sufficiently trained and competent person must carry out the investigations. They should have the
appropriate involvement with relevant personnel and their representatives.
5.2 Reporting timeframes
The Health and Safety Incident Reporting Framework (section 4.1) outlines reporting timeframes expected
by the Transport Agency. Minimum timeframes for initial notification, input into the reporting, and written
notice(s) are dependent on the class and type of incident.
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5.3 Exemptions
There may be occasions where an incident may occur and the prescribed level of investigation and
reporting will provide little value to the organisation, or the resource and effort required is not
proportionate with the potential benefits.
In such circumstances, an ‘exemption’ may be authorised at the discretion of the Transport Agency’s Zero
Harm Manager after a review of relevant facts, circumstances and outcomes. This exemption shall take the
form of a formal notification and cannot be delegated to another party.
5.4 Lessons learnt
It is vital that lessons learnt from incidents are communicated effectively by contractors within their own
organisation and to the Transport Agency.
Contractors must report to the Transport Agency to confirm that they have implemented corrective actions
arising from investigations. This must include assessments of the effectiveness of the actions and whether
further risk mitigation is possible. Details of lessons learnt must be provided to the Transport Agency as
soon as final causation and advice for potential avoidance has been fully determined.
The Transport Agency will publish “Safety Alerts” to key contactors on a regular basis and publish them on
its website in order to maximise awareness of lessons learnt across the supply chain.
The Safety Alerts published will be generic in nature identifying what went wrong, corrective actions and
additional learnings. They will not identify contractors or the Transport Agency project.
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7. MONTHLY REPORTING
Contractors are required to provide the Transport Agency with monthly health and safety reports. This will
help the Transport Agency benchmark performance of contractors, identify trends, and work towards a
Zero Harm culture on projects.
As part of our governance structure all initiatives will be measured using lead and lag indicators to
measure effectiveness and value for money. Our Lead and Lag indicators have been developed to capture
all tasks.
Contractors must enter their health and safety incident data into the Transport Agency’s Zero Harm
Incident Reporting Tool. Data can be entered on a daily basis but all data for that month must be entered
by the 9th of the following month.
Lead Indicators body
Table Lag Indicators body
Number of drug and alcohol tests
Number of Fatal incidents
Proportion of drug and alcohol tests that are
negative
Number of Serious Harm incidents
Number of site health and safety audits
Number of Lost Time Injuries (LTI)
Number of safety briefings
Number of Medical Treatment Injuries (MTI)
Number of near misses
Number of First Aid Injuries (FAI)
Number of positive reinforcements
Number of staff on reduced/alternate duties
Number of traffic management inspections
Number of significant environmental incidents
Number of Safety in Design workshops
(Designers only)
Number of Underground service strikes
Number of Safety in Design reviews (Designers
only)
Number of Overhead service strikes
Number of sub-contractor reviews
Number of property damage incidents
Number of stop work actions
Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR)
Total Recordable Frequency Rate (TRFR)
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Appendix A
Definition of terms
For the purposes of this document, unless inconsistent with context, the following definitions apply:
Below is the definition of Serious Harm from Schedule 1 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992:
Serious harm means death, or harm of a kind or description declared by the Governor-General by Order in
Council to be serious for the purposes of the Act; and 'seriously harmed' has a corresponding meaning.
Until such an Order in Council is made, the following types of harm are defined in Schedule 1 as 'serious
harm' for the purposes of the Act:
1.
Any of the following conditions that amounts to or results in permanent loss of bodily function, or
temporary severe loss of bodily function: respiratory disease, noise-induced hearing loss,
neurological disease, cancer, dermatological disease, communicable disease, musculoskeletal
disease, illness caused by exposure to infected material, decompression sickness, poisoning, vision
impairment, chemical or hot-metal burn of eye, penetrating wound of eye, bone fracture, laceration,
crushing.
Amputation of body part.
Burns requiring referral to a specialist registered medical practitioner or specialist outpatient clinic.
Loss of consciousness from lack of oxygen.
Loss of consciousness, or acute illness requiring treatment by a registered medical practitioner, from
absorption, inhalation or ingestion of any substance.
Any harm that causes the person harmed to be hospitalised for a period of 48 hours or more
commencing within seven days of the harm's occurrence.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The definition of serious harm is relevant to employers' duties to manage hazards, notification
requirements, employees' rights to refuse to do dangerous work, and inspectors' powers to issue
prohibition notices
Definition of a Site
For standalone/individual contracts, the site is as defined in the contract documents i.e. within the site
boundary (or within an offsite assembly area) as described in the works information. Note that, in
addition, if work activities associated with the project take place remote from the immediate area of the
site, but still on the Transport Agency network i.e. placing traffic management signs in advance of the
works area and accidents occur to the workforce whilst engaged in erecting, dismantling or maintain these
signs, the accidents should be reported.
•
•
•
For Design and Build contracts the definition as per sand-alone projects applies.
For work procured under the Network Outcome Contract the “site” is the area covered by the
agreement. Note this would include site depots.
For Design, Build Finance and Operate contracts or PPP contracts, the “site” is the area defined in
the PPP agreement.
Monthly Reporting Definitions - Lag Indicators
Fatal Incident - an incident resulting in the loss of life of a Transport Agency, Contractor or Subcontract
employee or member of the public.
Notifiable or Reportable Injury - any incident required under health and safety legislation to be reported
to a Statutory Authority (e.g. WorkSafe NZ, ACC, New Zealand Police Maritime NZ, etc.).
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Dangerous Occurrence - an event or set of conditions or circumstances where the outcome on that
occasion did not result in a major injury or damage, however, with only a slight change in the
circumstances, had the potential to cause fatal injuries, serious bodily harm or major property damage
Lost Time Injury - any work related injury or illness certified by a medical practitioner and compensable
under Worker Compensation laws (e.g. ACC), that results in absence from work for at least one scheduled
day or shift, following the day or shift when the injury occurred.
Medical Treatment Injury - the management and care of a patient to effect medical treatment or combat
disease or disorder not including:
•
•
Visits to a physician or other licensed health care professional solely for observation or counselling;
The conduct of diagnostic procedures, such as x-rays and blood test s, including the administration
of prescription medications used solely for diagnostic purposes (e.g ., eye drops to dilate pupils) or
First Aid as defined below.
First Aid Injury - treatment administered by and within the qualifications of a trained first aid attendant or
Occupational Health Nurse. The following examples would generally be regarded as first aid treatment.
Note this list is not exhaustive.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Using a non-prescription medication at non-prescription strength (for medications available in both
prescription and non-prescription form, a recommendation by a physician or other licensed health
care professional to use a non-prescription medication at prescription strength is considered medical
treatment for record keeping purposes);
Administering tetanus immunisations (other immunisations, such as Hepatitis B vaccine or rabies
vaccine, are considered medical treatment );
Cleaning, flushing or soaking wounds on the surface of the skin;
Using wound coverings such as bandages, Band -Aid s™, gauze pads, etc. or using butterfly
bandages or Ster i-Strips™ (other wound closing devices such as sutures, staples, etc. are considered
medical treatment);
Using hot or cold therapy;
Using any non-rigid means of support, such as elastic bandages, wraps, non-rigid back belts, etc.
(devices with rigid stays or other systems designed to immobilise parts of the body are considered
medical treatment for record keeping purposes);
Drilling of a fingernail or toenail to relieve pressure, or draining fluid from a blister;
Using eye patches;
Removing foreign bodies from the eye using only irrigation or a cotton swab;
Removing splinters or foreign material from areas other than the eye by irrigation, tweezers, cotton
swabs or other simple means;
Using finger guards;
Using massages (physical therapy or chiropractic treatment are considered medical treatment for
record keeping purposes); or
Drinking fluids for relief of heat stress.
Serious Environmental Incident - environmental controls absent or construction of a device is so poor that
it is likely to or has led to failure leading to an uncontrolled discharge of sediment off site. Issue by an
enforcing authority of an infringement or abatement notice or instigation of legal proceedings in respect
of an environmental incident.
Service Strikes - contact with an above ground or buried service resulting in damage or potential damage
to the service.
Property Damage - contact with third party property resulting in damage.
Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate - the number of Lost Time Injuries per million man hours worked,
calculated on a 12 month rolling basis.
Total Recordable Incident Frequency Rate - the number of Recordable Injuries per million man hours
worked, calculated on a 12 month rolling basis.
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Monthly Reporting Definitions - Lead Indicators
Drug and Alcohol Tests - the total number of drug and alcohol tests completed in the period including preemployment, post incident, due cause and random testing including subcontract personnel.
Positive Drug and Alcohol Tests - the total number of positive drug and alcohol test results in the period.
Site Health and Safety Audit - the total number of site health and safety audits completed in the period by
the contractors or subcontractors personnel.
Safety Briefing - the total number of safety briefings completed in the month including Toolbox Meetings,
Task Talks, Safety Alert briefings etc by the site team.
Near Miss (Close Call) - the total number of near miss (close call) reports submitted in the month by the
site team.
Traffic Management Inspection - the total number of traffic management audits completed by the
designated Site Traffic Management Supervisor (STMS) or other suitably qualified members of the site
team using the On Site Record or Site Condition Rating forms from CoPTTM as appropriate.
Safety in Design Workshop - Safety in Design workshop completed in accordance with the Safety in Design
Guidelines.
Safety in Design Issues Eliminated - number of safety related issues eliminated as part of the design
process prior to commencement of procurement of the physical works contract.
Subcontractor Review - number of subcontractor reviews completed by the main contractor in the period.
Stop Work Action - number of occasions when work is suspended proactively due to a member of the site
team identifying an area of safety concern.
Positive Reinforcement - the number of occasions the site team have been congratulated for achievement
of a proactive action or safety milestone. The following are examples where positive reinforcement would
be appropriate. Achievement of a significant LTI free period e.g. 1 year, 2 years etc.
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