RTA Annual Report 2009 Complete - RTA - NSW Government

Improvements were made to the traffi c control registration
scheme to reduce the risks to road workers from traffi c. The
scheme is now a mandatory condition of contracts, including
alliance business models and single invitation maintenance
contracts with local government. Work continues between
the RTA and local government to improve OHS performance
in road construction and maintenance through desktop audits
and monitoring of local councils’ maintenance contracts.
OHS program delivery
The RTA delivers its OHS program through a central OHS
Branch working with regional OHS facilitators, line managers
and their staff. This ensures ownership of OHS activities in
each local workplace. Audits and inspections ensure that
each area of the RTA is implementing the OHS management
system. Each area is required to complete an annual
self-assessment of compliance, with a near 100 per cent
response rate recorded in 2008-09.
RTA staff carrying out an OHS inspection on the
Great Western Highway.
Working Together targets
The RTA has performed well in NSW Government’s
Working Together injury prevention and management targets
and well above the average for all Treasury Managed Fund
(TMF) agencies. The Working Together reduction targets
represent the improvements in performance from previous
reference years required by the Working Together Strategy.
TABLE 10. WORKING TOGETHER PERFORMANCE
– WORKCOVER AS AT JUNE 2008
Working Together target
RTA
NSW public
sector result
1. Injury prevention – 20% 25% 6%
2. Injury management – 10%
8 wks -1% 8%
12 wks 1% 7%
26 wks -3% 9%
3. Average claims cost – 15% 42% 25%
4. Suitable duties – 10% -354% -22%
The RTA performed above the standard required in targets
one and three and its performance was better than the
public sector as a whole. Target two has not been achieved
by the RTA as a result of WorkCover’s methodology in
generating the data. Workers have been deemed unfi t for
work for the full eight, 12 or 26 weeks regardless of whether
they only had one day off or less in that time. Target four has
not been achieved by the RTA, or by the NSW public sector
as a whole. This result is caused by an increase in employees
unable to be placed in suitable duties from one person in
2005-06 to four people in 2008-09, coupled with a reduction
in overall claims for weekly benefi ts of 16.5 per cent, which
creates a poorer statistical result. WorkCover has noted the
inadequacies of these two targets and will modify the targets
for 2009-12.
The 2008-09 workplace injury rate was 4.9 per 100
equivalent full-time employees, a 47 per cent reduction from
the 2001–02 base year. This result exceeded the 40 per cent
reduction target set for 2012. The average claims cost for
2008-09 was $12,026, better than the WorkCover target
of $16,012.
OHS performance reporting
The RTA continued to use forward (lead) and delayed (lag)
performance indicators. A strategy to increase near miss
reporting began in 2008-09 to ensure that high consequence
risks are identifi ed and controlled. EnSafeOnline, the
RTA’s new online incident reporting and investigation
system, was implemented in 2007-08 and continues to
be upgraded to ensure that all incidents are reported and
investigated appropriately.
104 GOVERNANCE REVIEW OF OPERATIONS