Incident reporting and management is an important obligation for any person conducting a business in Australia.
Thousands of serious workplace incidents occur in Australia each year, with many that even result in death. Workplace injuries, illnesses or fatalities, including dangerous incidents can have a big impact on any business, with loss of productivity, increased absenteeism, or reduced staff morale. In some instances, it can even bring a business to a standstill.
Having appropriate systems and procedures in place to track, manage and report on workplace incidents, to meet and manage risk and compliance is vital for any business – to protect employees, contractors, or even visitors to a workplace.
What is a reportable incident?
Work health and safety laws in each state and territory mandate employers or persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), report workplace incidents as soon as they’re aware that an incident has occurred.
Reportable incidents or notifiable incidents include:
- a death
- a serious injury or illness
- a dangerous incident that could have death or serious injury
Examples of serious injury or illness can include an injury which requires immediate hospital treatment as an in-patient, immediate treatment for serious injuries – such as amputation, burns or serious lacerations, a spinal injury, injuries to the eyes or head.
What information do you need to report?
All work health and safety regulators require the following information to be collected for incident reporting:
- the type of notifiable incident and a description
- incident address, date, and time
- details describing the specific location such as section of the warehouse or the piece of equipment that the incident involved to help instructions about site disturbance
- injured person’s name, occupation, date of birth, address, and contact
- relationship of the injured person to the notifier
- description of serious injury or illness
- initial treatment of serious injury or illness where the patient has been taken for treatment (if applicable)
- legal and trading name of the person conducting a business or undertaking
- business address (if different from incident address), ABN/ACN and contact details (including phone number and email)
- action taken or intended to be taken (if any) to prevent recurrence
- notifier’s name, salutation, contact phone number and position at workplace
- name, phone number and position of person to contact for further information (if different from above)
How to notify and report an incident
A notifiable incident must be reported to the work health and safety regulator in the respective state or territory as soon as the employer is made aware of the incident. There are also obligations to notify insurers. You can find out how to report a notifiable incident in your state or territory:
- Australian Capital Territory – Notifying an incident or dangerous occurrence
- New South Wales – Incident notification
- Northern Territory – Incident notification requirements
- Queensland – Notify of an incident
- South Australia – Workplace incident notification
- Tasmania – Report an incident
- Victoria – Report an incident
- Western Australia – Reporting accidents and industrial diseases
Altora’s Incident Reporting management software
Having the right software solution in place can be of great value to any business. Employee management or contractor management procedures, supported by high-performance software can help employers record and manage documentation, including incident reporting for internal and external requirements.
With Altora you can create incident reports online to keep a record of serious safety incidents that have occurred on site. Whether it’s a serious and reportable incident, or minor workplace incident, you can report on and keep a record of every workplace accident.
- Enter incident details including injury or illness, worker details, and any witnesses
- Upload supporting documents and photos
- View open, closed or in-draft reports in one dashboard
- Review reports and close out once you complete all of your requirements
Talk to us
Get in touch to find out more about how Altora can work for your business.
Call 03 9329 7130 or email enquiries@altora.com.au
