Management of Occupational Health

The OHS regulatory regime for offshore petroleum facilities is a general duties regime using a safety case approach. It is generally a performance-based regime but includes some prescriptive elements. The key general duty that is set out in the principal legislative instrument [the Commonwealth Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006] falls on the operators of facilities and requires that they take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that the facility is safe and without risk to the health of any person at or near a facility and that all activities are carried out safely and without risk to health.

In addition, there are particular matters the operators must address as set out in the subordinate legislation which includes the following regulations:

Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Occupational Health and Safety) Regulations 1993

Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Management of Safety on Offshore Facilities) Regulations 1996 (which introduces the safety case)

Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Pipelines) Regulations 2001

Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Diving Safety) Regulations 2002

The Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Occupational Health and Safety) Regulations 1993 include specific provisions regarding exposure to hazardous substances, fatigue management and exposure to noise.

The safety case is one part of discharging this general duty and includes the facility-specific commitments by the operators regarding the arrangements that ensure proper control of risk at the facility. Such risk control measures must include matters set out in the legislation and may include arrangements that are consistent with standards and codes of practice. The Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Management of Safety on Offshore Facilities) Regulations 1996 include specific provisions regarding specifying of all Australian and international standards that are applied at the facility. It is therefore for the operator of a facility to decide which standards are to be applied. The safety case is subject to assessment and acceptance or rejection by the regulator, NOPSA.

In summary, the legislation does not generally specify ‘OHS rules’. It is for the operator to decide, in the context of their general OHS duty of care, on appropriate and practicable risk control measures. NOPSA will be mindful of relevant standards on such topic areas (if available) when assessing the specific standards commitments made by the operator in their safety case.

Operator’s Duty to Monitor Health and Safety of Workforce

Operators have a duty to monitor the health and safety of all members of the workforce and to keep records of such monitoring. (Clause 9(2)(g) of Schedule 3 to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006). This duty only applies to operators, but requires that operators manage health and safety monitoring programs for all members of the workforce - not just their own employees.

Examples of monitoring and reporting include exposure assessments relating to noise, hazardous substances and heat stress. Monitoring data is a type of health surveillance record, because it documents assessed health and safety risks to members of the workforce.

Health surveillance records should:

identify workers or work-groups who are exposed to health hazards at work (Please note: health surveillance records may contain confidential information and must be used and maintained in accordance with applicable privacy laws)
assess their risk of suffering an adverse health effect from exposure to these hazards
evaluate their health to detect early signs and symptoms of adverse health effects
verify the effectiveness of workplace controls

Examples of health surveillance records include audiograms, biological monitoring results, exposure monitoring results, functional test results (e.g. lung function testing), demographic data, occupational history, medical history, whether Personal Protective Equipment is selected, used and maintained correctly at work, and exposures to contra-indicating substances like ototoxins.

Health surveillance should be provided by competent practitioners including audiologists, audiometrists, and occupational physicians, as applicable. Operators are responsible for ensuring that health surveillance practitioners are competent.

The National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (now Safeworks Australia) Guideline for Health Surveillance [NOHSC 7039 (1995)] identifies various hazardous substances that warrant health surveillance monitoring. Additionally, specific competency criteria for medical practitioners are addressed in the NOHSC document Competencies for Health Surveillance (June 1998)

National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority

Management of Occupational Health

Operator’s Duty to Monitor Health and Safety of Workforce

Related Documents