WORKSAFE - Notices

Provisional Improvement Notice 

What is a PIN? 

A PIN is a Provisional Improvement Notice as per Victoria's Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (the Act).

This is a formal notice from a Health and Safety Representative to his employer or employer representative advising them that there is a health or safety problem at work.

This PIN requires the duty holder to whom it is issued to remedy a contravention, prevent a likely contravention from occurring or remedy the things or operations causing the contravention or likely contravention of the Act or Regulations. Depending on the particular contravention, the duty holder may be an individual natural person or an organisation such as a company or public authority. Section 97 of the Act requires that the person to whom a PIN is issued must, as soon as practicable, display a copy of the PIN in a prominent place at or near the workplace, or part of the workplace at which work is being carried out that is affected by the PIN. 

An improvement notice can be issued to a person about whom an inspector forms a reasonable belief that the person is contravening or has contravened a provision of the WHS Act or WHS Regulations. There is no other limitation on the persons to whom an improvement notice can be issued.

A PIN may be issued if WorkSafe:

• 'reasonably believes' that a person is breaching or has breached a provision of the Act in circumstances that make it likely that the breach will continue or be repeated
• has not been possible to fix the problem by consultation.

The person issued with a PIN must:

• display the PIN in a prominent place at the workplace
• fix the WHS issue before the due date (unless they request a review).

A PIN must not be removed, damaged or defaced until the WHS issue has been fixed, or an inspector has reviewed the matter.

Notice of Improvement

An improvement notice gives you the chance to correct what you're doing wrong and will: specify what you're doing that breaks the law. say what you need to do to correct the issue and why. give you a period of time - at least 21 days - in which to comply. 

Did you know you can be held criminally liable if your company is not complaint in your Work Health & Safety and someone is injured or killed as a result.                                                                                       

That means not just large fines, but people in your business potentially being convicted of a criminal offence and charged in a court of law and face possible imprisonment. 

Companies need to be proactive about Work Health and Safety.

Workers

The law gives workers the right to stop unsafe work if they have a reasonable concern that they (or someone else) would be exposed to a serious and immediate WHS risk.

If a worker stops unsafe work without informing their HSR they must notify the PCBU as soon as possible, and can be given suitable alternative work until they can return to their normal duties.

Health and safety representatives

A WorkSafe inspector can direct one or more of the workers to stop unsafe work. 

Workers instructed to stop unsafe work can be given suitable alternative work until they return to their normal duties.

Workers:

Workers can be directed to stop unsafe work:

• If there is a serious or immediate danger and risk to an employee or
• an employee asks for help. 

What can we do:

AWCT will identify risks and uncover threats resulting from non-compliant processes that could leave you exposed to severe penalties under the Work Health and Safety Our initial workplace site audit includes a comprehensive assessment of WHS compliance in your workplace. Once we have made our assessment and completed the audit, we will sit down with your team and discussed our findings. We will then formulate a plan to rectify compliance risk and site deficiencies. 

When the audit process is completed and you’ve made the recommended changes, you’ll be confident that your policies, procedures and processes are not only compliant, but best practice.