FEBRUARY 2014 | HIRE
AND
RENTAL
NEWS
| 19
EVENTS IN FOCUS
Mark Burton, Renniks Hire Safety Coordinator, saw the introduction
of the Model Work Health Safety Act 2012 into South Australia, as a
great opportunity to lift the standards of the industry and push for a
safer approach across every facet of staging of an event. Here Mark
talks about the development of the Safety Document Booklet.
South Australia
has been a key
player in big national
and international
events for a long
time, but behind
the scenes it has
been the proverbial
‘sticky tape and
string’ that brings
everything together.
An unregulated
market inundated
with backyarders has
kept this industry
teetering on the
brink between success and catastrophe, until now.
Where the eastern states have a regulated approach to this
industry, requiring building certification and occupancy permits,
South Australia has an unregulated approach allowing almost
anyone to build temporary structures or run an event.
Renniks Hire is a supplier of temporary structures and other
event related equipment in South Australia with a full time Safety
Coordinator. But safety costs money, and continuing to compete
in a cutthroat industry during a difficult financial period meant
something needed to change.
Mark said the introduction of the new Act, and the changes it
brought, was a great opportunity to change the industry.
The start was developing a Safety Document Booklet; that required
updating all of our internal safety documentation to ensure it
complied with the new WHS Act, understanding the new WHS Act
and how any changes would affect our industry and getting approval
to share our internal documentation with other organisations.
One of the main barriers to implementing this project was
clarifying the changes to the WHS regulations and the underlying
changes to responsibilities. Understanding where our organisation
now sits in relation to an overall event and the responsibilities of
those who contract our services.
Sharing of documentation was another area of resistance, some
of the documentation I wanted to use in this project was costly to
the company, engineering plans for example, and knowing other
companies did not have access to these, there were concerns they
would copy and use for their own structures.
The biggest barrier was getting event organisers to understand
the requirements for ensuring safety at events and ensuring safety
throughout the construction and dismantling stages of those events.
Today our sales staff utilise the Event Safety Booklet on a daily
basis, explaining to potential clients their obligations and showing
them how contracting Renniks Hire to do their work will go a long
way toward meeting their requirements for due diligence.
The Renniks Hire – Event Safety Booklet (and the concept behind
it) was recognised at the 2013 SafeWork SA Awards where Mark won
Best Individual Contribution to Workplace Health and Safety.
Contact: 08 8371 2117 or visit:
HR
The Renniks Hire – Event Safety Booklet was
recognised at the 2013 SafeWork SA Awards
SafeWork Awards recognise
new approach
