Tasmania Fire Service defends its workplace health and safety record

The Union said workers had told it of mouldy breathing apparatus equipment and unroadworthy vehicles.

Since August 2022, the TFS has been issued 11 provisional improvement notices for various health and safety issues.

TFS chief officer Dermot Barry said the organisation encourages reporting of hazards.

"Every worker has a role to play in making the workplace as healthy and safe as possible.

"TFS manages provisional improvement notices' (PINs) per the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 and follows appropriate processes for managing these PINs.

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"There have been no injuries to workers relating to the PINs raised."

Mr Barry said the TFS continuously reviews and improves work health and safety and that the State Fire Commission had recently approved a revised WHS Governance Model.

"Under the revised WHS Governance Model, firefighters can be assured that the process for reporting and mitigating risk has been streamlined and communication with staff has been improved," Mr Barry said

"The team leader and supervisor will mitigate an immediate risk as soon as possible.

"The Health and Safety Representative for the work group will be advised, and a joint investigation into the identified issue will be undertaken.

"Where there is no immediate risk, the team leader and supervisor will liaise with the HSR and the reporting staff member to resolve the issue promptly.

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"An escalation process is available if the matter is not resolved at the work group level."

Regarding Mr Barry's comments, the United Firefighters Union of Australia Tasmania Branch industrial organiser Stephen McCallum said that "it's pretty clear that their response is about making it look like they're taking action rather than actually having any kind of commitment to a collaborative approach to workplace health and safety".

"They talked about a new WHS governance model approved by the State Fire Commission.

"So the WHS act encourages consultation and agreement on those kinds of issues.

"This is something they've unilaterally implemented without agreement and lacking consultation."

Mr McCallum believed that the new processes had not been successful.

"They talk about how they manage PINs under the Act.

"A couple of the PINs issued since August are Section 99 breaches.

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"Section 99 is a failure to comply with a PIN.

"That is literally a contravention of how the Act requires you to deal with PINs."

Mr McCallum said WHS issues had been an ongoing problem.

"For approximately the last decade, firefighters have been going through these internal processes of raising hazards, giving the TFS a chance to fix WHS issues," he said.

"They keep getting commitments of 'yeah, we'll fix that', but it never happens.

"Firefighters have gotten to the point where they are not going to let these issues go anymore; they are going to hold the service to account using the Health and Safety Act."

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Mr McCallum said it was severe that there had been contraventions of the Act.

"These are the minimum stands for an organisation undertaking such dangerous work like sending people into burning buildings or to chemical leaks.

"We need to make sure that we're exceeding the minimum standards.

"We shouldn't be having this issue of trying to force the TFS to comply with the minimum standards, and it's a bit disappointing that we're in this position."

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