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Southern Region Roundup
DARREN LEES
FATIGUE MANAGEMENT – WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT?
A recent article in the Sunday Mail related to the amount of money the QPS earned in specials payments over
the last year. The amount quoted in the story was $30,790,000 over the 2011/2012 year: some serious coin in
anyone’s terms. Of course, our members benefit from it, and in some cases, our members need to perform these
specials to make ends meet in an economic environment where everything seems to rise well in excess of any
pay increases we receive.
While the financial information
pertaining to specials duties in the
article is an interesting read, it got
me thinking of something that is very
topical at the moment: the issue of
fatigue management.
The QPS seems to have taken a very
serious line towards it as part of their
WH&S management, and it is topical
“The general principle
is simple: fatigue
management is the
responsibility of every
single person within
an organisation.”
particularly as I write this article,
because I am due to start work at
10pm tonight for my sixth night
wireless.
Only a few months ago, our QPU
Executive attended a presentation
by Peter Simpson, a gentleman
from Western Australia who is
recognised as a bit of a guru on the
issue of fatigue management and its
impact on workers in a wide range
of industries, particularly the mining
industry.
The QPS has commissioned Peter to
conduct research into the issue of
fatigue management and to assist
with information sharing between
management and supervisors
throughout the state
When we heard Peter speak, the
Manager of the QPS Wellbeing
section, Colin Anderson, was also
present. A lot of what Peter and Colin
said made perfect sense to me.
The general principle I took away
from the presentation is simple:
fatigue management is the
responsibility of every single person
within an organisation.
It is the responsibility of the
employee coming to work to ensure
they are not fatigued to the point
that they place themselves and their
workmates at risk.
It is the responsibility of the QPS
Senior Executive to ensure they
have suitable and effective fatigue
management policies designed to
assist our members in the workplace,
ensure they have appropriate risk
management strategies to address
the issue of members who sometimes
necessarily come to work fatigued.
Much of what the Service speaks
about pertaining to fatigue
management is often linked to special
duties, and our members performing
those duties on rest days or before or
after shifts.
In the eyes of many, this practice
may be causing our members to be
significantly fatigued, and hence
they may be placing themselves and
others at risk when they are actually
at work performing their rostered
shifts.
I understand that, and have no issue
with the aspect of special duties being
one area where our members need to
be careful that they are not smashing
themselves to a point where they can
only ever be fatigued at work.
“It is a well-known fact that when there is a
major investigation occurring, detectives may
go days with very little (if any) sleep, until the
baddie is in the bin.”
and to ensure the risk of someone
making a life or death decision while
fatigued is minimised.
It is the responsibility of the NCOs
and managers of stations, sections,
and teams within our Service to
However, this is not the only area
where our members will experience
fatigue at work, and the QPS needs to
take a long, hard look at its policies to
protect all our members and ensure
we do not have people at work who
are so fatigued they cannot function.
Queensland Police Union Journal August 2012 9