WINNER - Category 4 Best individual contribution to workplace health and safety
No formal OHS responsibility - Alan Burman, Country Energy
Country Energy manages Australia’s largest energy supply network across NSW, with over 4000 employees serving more than 870,000 customers. Country Energy offers a range of products including reticulated natural gas, sewerage, in addition to energy and water management solutions.
Initiative
Alan Burman, Manager Public Safety at Country Energy, began his career in 1970 in a four year electrical apprenticeship. Since then, and throughout his various positions, Alan has implemented workplace and community safety initiatives above and beyond his immediate areas of responsibility.
Alan has been a driving force for improving safety at Country Energy. Some of Alan’s novel and innovative initiatives have included the development of the hold-up awareness course, formulation of the fire retardant clothing test, syllabus for safety officers course, safety techniques for chainsaw topping, industrial safety belts, as well as initiating electricity field days and safety practitioners conferences.
Due to Alan’s efforts in raising OHS awareness, there have been substantial improvements across all aspects of the Country Energy’s business practice and throughout the whole energy supply industry. Alan has successfully driven a cultural shift in the organisation’s thinking regarding health and safety, making a significant contribution through his awareness building activities, and his input at courses and conferences.
Alan’s dedication to improving Country Energy’s OHS performance has lead to new ways in recording the organisation’s effectiveness in managing the physical and psychological hazards in the workplaces. Alan has also shown his commitment to OHS by keeping at the forefront of practical safety methods, with his initiatives having a positive impact on his co-workers and the community at large.
WINNER - Category 4 Best individual contribution to workplace health and safety
Formal OHS responsibility - Nardia Zelukovic, Orange Precision Metalcraft
Orange Precision Metalcraft (OPM) specialises in industrial and commercial metalwork design and fabrication. The organisation employs 21 full time employees and hosts five apprentices from the Central West Group Apprentices. Based in Orange, OPM are involved in all aspects of the metalwork fabrication, from inception through to the finished product.
Initiative
Knowing first hand how detrimental and devastating injury can be to a person’s health and their family, Nardia Zelukovic threw herself into improving OPM’s occupational health and safety procedures. As OPM’s Human Resources Administrator, she nominated herself to bring the company into line with their legislative requirements and to create a safer workplace for OPM’s employees.
As the business grew, Nardia realised that OPM was risking non-compliance, resulting in greater risks to its workers health and safety and the inability of the business to compete for major contracts. Nardia completed a Certificate IV in Occupational Heath and Safety in order to develop better procedures and systems that would work within OPM’s present and future structure.
Nardia took it upon herself to find different avenues to implement a cohesive OHS system. She set out on an extensive networking regime of contacting other organisations for OHS ideas, as well as attending OHS seminars run by regional safety groups, and employing an OHS consultant to oversee any changes.
With help from the OHS consultant, Nardia undertook educating workers about their rights and responsibilities to be safe at work. By engaging and consulting within the workplace about any proposed policies or practices, Nardia was able to produce practical procedures and systems to prevent incidents and injury.
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