Health and safety in temporary traffic management

Temporary traffic management

Temporary traffic management (TTM) is a short-term system of traffic control. It aims to create a safe area for work on or near roads and other public traffic thoroughfares.

TTM helps keep road users safe. But it can also place employees and others at risk of harm. Employees working in TTM have been seriously injured and killed in workplace incidents.

Occupational health and safety laws

There are laws you must follow if you work in TTM. One of those laws is the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. It's known as the OHS Act. The OHS Act applies to most workplaces in Victoria. The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 are another set of laws. They're known as the OHS Regulations and build on the OHS Act.

The OHS Act and OHS Regulations help keep employees and others safe at work. They do this by setting out obligations and duties to identify hazards and control risks. A hazard is something that can cause harm. A risk is the chance of a hazard causing harm. Harm includes injury, illness or death.

Some parts of the OHS Regulations focus on hazards that are common in TTM. Those parts of the OHS Regulations include:

• Part 3.1 – Hazardous Manual Handling
• Part 3.2 – Noise
• Part 3.5 – Plant
• Part 5.1 – Construction.

Serious consequences

Failing to fulfill your occupational health and safety (OHS) duties can have serious consequences. Workplace injuries and fatalities cause trauma. They can also have severe legal and financial repercussions. Take section 32 of the OHS Act for example. This is the duty not to recklessly endanger people at workplaces. If found guilty of an offence under section 32, you could face up to 5 years in jail or a fine that could exceed $350,000.

Responsibilities under other laws

As well as OHS laws, people who work in TTM also have responsibilities under other laws. Those laws include the:

• Road Safety (Traffic Management Regulations) 2019
• Road Safety Act 1986
• Road Management Act 2004
• Road Safety Road Rules 2017.

Responsibilities under those laws include a duty to develop traffic management plans. The plans must include a risk assessment.

People working in TTM may also have duties under the Rail Safety Act 2006.

The Austroads Guide to Temporary Traffic Management

The Austroads Guide to Temporary Traffic Management (AGTTM) is a 10-part guide. It explains current TTM practices in Australia and New Zealand. The AGTTM includes information on hazards and risks associated with TTM. It also includes measures to control those risks. Consult the AGTTM and WorkSafe guidance when working through the risk management process for TTM.

Transport Victoria

The Transport Victoria website has further information on identifying and controlling hazards and risks in traffic management.

Code of practice

Victoria has the Code of Practice for Worksite Safety - Traffic Management. The code is made under section 26 of the Road Management Act 2004. It provides practical guidance on traffic management on roads and road-related areas. The code includes information on traffic management plans.

Other sources

Other laws and information can help you understand hazards and risks in your workplace. Find information about Acts, Regulations and Rules on the Victorian legislation website. Note, that even if you have followed the health and safety standards in other laws, OHS laws and WorkSafe may require you to put further controls in place.

WorkSafe's role

WorkSafe is Victoria's OHS regulator. It is also the workplace injury insurer. WorkSafe's job is to reduce workplace harm and improve outcomes for injured workers. It helps you comply with OHS laws and your workers' compensation obligations.

Inspections are one tool that WorkSafe uses to improve workplace safety. Other tools and actions include:

• guidance
• campaigns
• education programs
• targeted interventions
• warnings
• compliance measures, including, improvement and prohibition notices and directions
• prosecutions.

Please contact WorkSafe for more information about the organisation and its role.

Who's an employer?

You're an employer under the OHS Act if you employ one or more people under a contract of employment or contract of training. As an employer, you have duties to your employees and others. Your employees may include independent contractors you have engaged. Your employees may also include employees of the contractors. Additionally, you will be considered an employer of labour hire workers placed with you by a labour hire company.

An employer is a person, with person being defined in the OHS Act to include:

• a body corporate
• an unincorporated body or association
• a partnership.

If you're not sure whether you're an employer, you can seek independent advice from, for example:

• your legal representative
• the Federation of Community Legal Centres
• the Law Institute of Victoria's lawyer referral service.

OHS duties of employers

Under the OHS Act, employers have responsibilities to keep employees and others safe and healthy at work.

As an employer, this means you must:

• provide a working environment that is safe and without risks to health
• maintain a safe working environment
• do both these things so far as is reasonably practicable.

A safe working environment requires you to, so far as is reasonably practicable:

• provide safe systems of work and ensure the systems of work remain safe and without risks to health
• provide safe equipment and keep it in safe condition
• make sure equipment and substances are used, handled, stored and transported safely
• keep workplaces in a safe condition and without risks to health
• provide adequate facilities for the welfare of employees.

You must also provide employees with the necessary information, instruction, training or supervision they need to work safely.

Duty to independent contractors

Employees might not be the only workers you have to keep safe and healthy at work. If you employ people and also engage independent contractors, you may have duties to the contractors and their employees.

Independent contractors commonly engage subcontractors to work on parts of a contracted task. If you have any control over a contractor’s or subcontractor’s work, you owe them and their employees the same duties as you do to your own employees.

For example, you might engage a contractor to carry out TTM. The contractor is to use a stop-slow bat to manage the flow of traffic. To do the work, the contractor engages a subcontractor to use the stop-slow bat. In this situation, you owe duties under the OHS Act to both the contractor and subcontractor.

When there are contractors and subcontractors in a workplace, there may be activities or risks you do not have control over. Your duties relate to any activities or risks in your control. If you have the right to tell people what to do, or how to do it, then it is likely you have enough control over that matter to have OHS duties relating to it.

As an employer, your duties also extend to matters that would fall under your control, even if:

• there is no contract in place stating that you are not responsible for those matters
• you have less responsibility for those matters in your control.

You cannot 'contract out' of your OHS duties for matters under your control. Even if a contract states otherwise, you are still responsible for those duties.

More than one person can have control over matters that might affect a contractor or subcontractor in the workplace. For example:

• If a person is an employer and has control over an activity or risk in the workplace, then the employer has duties to control that risk so far as is reasonably practicable, even if someone else also has those duties.
• If a person has management or control over the workplace to any extent, the person has OHS duties to make sure the workplace, as well as the means of coming and going from it, are safe and without risk to health. These duties cover anything the person has management or control over, even if someone else also has those duties.

Duty to other people

As an employer, you have a duty to other people your work affects. You must make sure your work does not put others’ health and safety at risk. You must do everything reasonably practicable to ensure this does not happen.

People who may be affected by your work activities include the following:

• Drivers.
• Vulnerable road users (VRU). VRU describes any road user who is not inside a motor vehicle. In a crash, a VRU has little to no protection. VRUs include, for example
  • motorcyclists
  • pedestrians
  • cyclists
  • people with a disability or reduced mobility and orientation
  • frail and elderly people
  • children.
• People from other organisations working at the same site.
• Members of the public at the worksite.

Duty to consult

The OHS Act places a duty on employers to consult with employees. You must consult with employees who are, or are likely to be, directly affected by certain things. a Your employees might have health and safety representatives (HSRs). In this case, you must consult with HSRs, with or without employees’ direct involvement. As an employer, you must fulfil your duty to consult so far as is reasonably practicable.

You must consult when doing any of the following:

• Identifying or assessing hazards or risks.
• Making decisions on how to control risks.
• Making decisions about employee welfare facilities. For example, dining facilities, change rooms, toilets or first aid.
• Deciding on procedures to
  • resolve health and safety issues
  • consult with employees on health and safety
  • monitor employees' health and workplace conditions
  • provide information and training
• Deciding the membership of any health and safety committee in the workplace.
• Proposing changes to the following that may affect employees’ health or safety
  • workplace
  • plant, substances or other things used in the workplace
  • conduct of work done at the workplace
• Doing anything else set by the OHS Regulations.

Duties relating to incidents

Employers must notify WorkSafe immediately after becoming aware of certain incidents at work. These notifiable incidents include incidents that result in the death or serious injury of a person.

Duty to monitor the workplace

Employers have a duty to monitor health and safety at their workplace. This means you have to make sure the working environment is safe and stays safe. You also have to make sure employees know what is happening about health and safety at work.

Find more information on the WorkSafe website about the health and safety duties that apply to you.