Published on Wednesday, 6 September 2023 at 12:48:26 PM
The Town of Port Hedland has been named a finalist in the 2023 WA Work Health and Safety Excellence Awards.
The Town’s innovation to reduce and mitigate harm from antisocial behaviour has earned it a finalist position in the best intervention to address a psychosocial hazard in the workplace category.
Town of Port Hedland Mayor Peter Carter said the Town being named as a finalist recognised the careful approach it had taken to identifying, and then addressing, risks.
“Over a number of years our teams have looked carefully at how antisocial behaviour can impact on our employees,” Mayor Carter said.
“We’ve made changes that minimise the impact on our employees if they encounter antisocial behaviour.”
Some of the initiatives implemented included changing facility entry and exit points to ensure employee safety, enhanced training, improved lighting, personal alarms, restricting access to reception and office areas and deactivating Wi-Fi after hours.
“The Town was able to demonstrate a substantial reduction in the number of antisocial incidents," Mayor Carter said.
"Over the two-week holiday period in December 2022 there were only three antisocial incidents reported, compared to 16 during the same period for the year before.
“That is a great outcome where we have been able to demonstrate how simple changes can have a substantial positive impact in protecting our employees from potential harm.”
Being named a finalist in in the 2023 WA Work Health and Safety Excellence Awards adds to the Town’s achievement in being awarded the WorkSafe Plan Gold Certificate in May 2022.
The award winners will be announced at a ceremony in Perth on 27 October.
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