At Heritage Plumbing we believe safety on the job is an important part of being a professional plumbing and maintenance business and critical to our success and that of our customers and stakeholders.
The protection of people, whether staff, clients or the public is of the utmost importance to Heritage Plumbing. In the same way we strive to provide the best quality work, we also strive for excellence in safety.
We see OH & S as a responsibility to all of our stakeholders and as such have a policy implemented to develop and maintain Safe Work Method Statements for all identified High Risk activities.
The Purpose of SWMS
Heritage Plumbing SWMS are designed so that we can achieve the following:
- Achieve an accident-free workplace by identifying and removing risk
- Make health and safety an integrated part of our work practices at all levels of the organisation
- Make health and safety a priority when planning all work activities
- Consult with our employees and get them involved in the identification and decision-making around the reduction of risk in the work place
- Continuous improvement of our systems and procedures to modify behaviour and work practices to ensure that our staff work in the safest possible manner
- Identify, control and prevent all potential hazards in the workplace through hazard identification and risk analysis
To achieve these goals there are a few basic safety policies that we have implemented to ensure compliance and also to ensure the health and well being of our staff and stakeholders. They are as follows –
Trade Specific Qualifications and Training
Risk Assessments
Prior to the commencement of any work our staff must perform a risk assessment, this process identifies the steps involved in the job to be carried out and identifies whether there is any “High Risk” activities involved that would require a SWMS.
Trade Specific Qualifications and Training
As trade qualified and licenced plumbers, we understand the inherent industry specific risks that we are exposed to, so whether it be working with energised liquids, gases or waste, or using the correct PPE for other general plumbing activities. We ensure a safety culture within the organisation through the use of consultation and regular “Toolbox” meetings to identify and reduce the effect of job specific risks to our team.
Working at Heights
Working in the plumbing industry exposes our staff to risks in many different environments, one of the most common being Working at Heights. This can be working on roofs, air-conditioning services, solar hot water panels, ducting or even over an excavated trench. As such we require any of our staff that are exposed to Working at Heights risk to have the appropriate level of training and qualifications.
Confined Spaces
Confined Spaces can present workers with potentially life threatening situations, with the potential exposure to toxic fumes and gases with the added difficulty of limited access or egress and to add to these risks there is a potential for what could be considered a stable environment to change in a few moments due to the activity being undertaken. SO Heritage Plumbing takes working in these Confined Spaces seriously and requires all relevant staff to be trained and current in Confined Space Entry and Rescue.