Roadworkers Need WorkSafe Health and Safety At Work Training

Evolve Training Academy is training traffic workers on how to apply the WorkSafe Health and Safety At Work Act 2015 (HSWA).  With this Act it is more important than ever for workers to understand the principles, duties, roles, responsibilities and rights under the new act. Evolve Training Academy has identified through a pilot scheme run at Evolution Road Services some serious gaps in knowledge.

The training covers key roles under the HSWA, their duties, responsibilities and workplace rights. The learning intentions for this course are to give staff an understanding of the HSWA and how it is applied in the Temporary Traffic Management (TTM) space. Evolve Training Academy will link the act training to CoPTTM and real world TTM examples.

The course is both theory and practical with a classroom session where attendees complete a HSWA workbook that runs alongside a presentation. They will also be trained in practical hazard identification. A mock worksite and TMP is used to complete CoPTTM paperwork. Attendees will also go through TTM Health and Safety scenario exercises. The course is four hours long.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 is New Zealand's workplace health and safety law. It came into effect on 4 April 2016. In 2013 the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety reported that New Zealand's work health and safety system was failing. As a result, New Zealand's work health and safety system underwent its most significant reforms for 20 years resulting in the establishment of WorkSafe New Zealand and the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA).

HSWA recognises that a well-functioning health and safety system relies on participation, leadership, and accountability by government, business and workers. HSWA sets out the principles, duties and rights in relation to workplace health and safety. A guiding principle of HSWA is that workers and others need to be given the highest level of protection from workplace health and safety risks, as is reasonable.

Temporary Traffic Management was introduced as a means of controlling and reducing risk on the roads. This traffic management course covers not only the risk from exposure of workers to live traffic and the public, but also helps protect the public from the worksite itself. To deal with these issues that arise from this, the Code of Practice for Temporary Traffic Management (CoPTTM) was introduced. CoPTTM was introduced to comply with the Health and Safety in Employment Act along with providing a guideline for those working on the road.

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA, formerly Transit New Zealand and the Land Transport Safety Authority) have officially adopted CoPTTM, and in turn most Regional Councils and other Road Controlling Authorities now also run with this guide.

Evolution are traffic management experts who have been delivering industry related training for close to 15 years. The company provides NZQA accredited unit standards for traffic management training; traffic controller, driver training, through to competency based STMS and health and safety mitigation courses.

For more information on Evolve Training Academy, traffic management course, Traffic Control Courses, stms training and more, visit  https://www.evolvetraining.ac.nz/

Contact Evolve Training Academy on 0800 007 070 or email info@evolvetraining.ac.nz