Permit to Work Major Hazard Standard - MIRMgate

WMC EHS Management System Major Hazard Standard
Permit to Work
1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE
1.1 Purpose
This Standard details the requirements of the
Permit to Work System for application at all
WMC Resources owned and operated sites.
The purpose is to:
• Authorise and control high-risk work
designated as requiring a ‘Work Permit’
• Provide a process for competent
personnel to authorise progress of highrisk
work
• Ensure that all hazards are identified and
that appropriate controls are in place and
communicated prior to work commencing
• Provide a formal hand-over process to
acknowledge that all hazards have been
addressed
• Ensure that personnel carrying out the
work are aware of the exact scope of
work and the hazard controls required
• Ensure the impact of work on other tasks
and the Operations is understood
• Provide a formal hand-back process to
ensure the work area is safe to return to
normal duties when the work is
completed
• Provide a process for controlling the
safety of specific types of work that, due
to circumstances, have been classified
as lower risk work (e.g. some Hot Work
and Confined Space inspection activities)
• Provide a record of a safe system of
work.
1.2 Scope
This Standard defines a comprehensive Permit
to Work System. This document includes
Appendices that describe particular hazard
controls and other requirements that need to
be considered when establishing work controls
for designated high-risk work activities. This
set of high-risk work activities includes:
• Intrusive work on systems containing
energy (Appendix D1)
• Working in a Confined Space (Appendix
E1)
• Hot Work (Appendix F1)
• Working with or near Radiation Sources
(Appendix G1)
• Excavation Tasks (Appendix H1).
Not all work in these areas will be designated
as high-risk and require a Work Permit. The
site is required to establish criteria that allows
personnel to judge when a Work Permit is
required versus alternative work controls.
The specific requirements for working at
heights is covered in Major Hazard Standard
08 Safe Work at Height.
Similarly there may be other activities deriving
from risk assessment processes that will need
a Work Permit. Typical examples of additional
high-risk work are working with mineral fibres
and removal of grid mesh/platform walkways in
operational areas.
2 GENERAL
The Permit to Work System describes a
rigorous process for managing designated
high-risk work.
WMC-EHS-MHS-007 DocsOpen Ref : 155520 Issued: 23/12/03 Page 4 of 59