Wesley Mission Policies

Occupational Health and Safety policy

Wesley Mission Sydney is a dynamic church committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ through a global word and deed ministry. We are committed to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of our employees, volunteers, contractors and others in our workplaces. We will achieve this by:

providing premises that are safe and without risk to health;
ensuring any plant or substance provided for use at work is safe and without risk to health when properly used;
maintaining safe systems of work, safe working environment and safe work practices;
providing information, instruction, training and supervision to ensure the health and safety of employees, volunteers, contractors, visitors and others; and
providing adequate facilities for the welfare of employees, volunteers, contractors and others.

These commitments require the active participation of all Wesley Mission managers and employees.

Wesley Mission’s Executive Managers shall:

provide the necessary resources, direction and leadership to implement the objectives of this policy;
establish health and safety objectives for their industry groups, and be accountable for the health and safety performance of their industry groups; and
foster continuous improvement in health and safety performance by integrating OHS risk management principles into operational and strategic decision-making processes.

Each of our Managers and Coordinators shall:

establish and maintain safe premises, safe systems of work, and a safe working environment;
identify, assess and control hazards in our workplaces and arising from our activities;
consult with employees to enable them to effectively contribute to the making of decisions affecting their health, safety and welfare at work; and
provide instruction, training, information and supervision to ensure the health and safety of employees, volunteers, contractors and others in their workplace.

Each Wesley Mission Employee, Volunteer, Contractor and Visitor shall:

take reasonable care for the health and safety of themselves and others in the workplace;
work in accordance with established safe systems of work, including undertaking training as necessary to ensure their health and safety;
promptly report all hazards, incidents and injuries; and contribute to consultative arrangements for health and safety.

Wesley Mission has developed an occupational health and safety programme to help implement the objectives of this policy. All employees, volunteers, contractors, visitors and others are required to comply with this policy, with Wesley Missions’ occupational health and safety programme, and with relevant occupational health and safety legislation, codes of practice and standards.

Return to Work Program policy and procedures

Our Commitment to this Workplace is:

Preventing injury and illness by providing a safe and healthy working environment.
To develop and implement the Return to Work Program within the Mission in consultation with employees and their OH&S Representatives.
To ensure that the injury management process is commenced as soon as possible after an injury in a manner consistent with medical judgement.
To ensure that remaining at work or returning to work as soon as possible by an injured / ill employee is a normal practice and expectation.
To offer and provide suitable duties to partially incapacitated employees as an integral part of the injury management/return to work processes.
To consult with employees and, where applicable, appropriate representatives of those employees.
To ensure that participation in a Return to Work Plan will not, of itself disadvantage an injured or ill employee

Our Procedures when Injury/Illness Occurs are:

When an injury occurs – When an injury or illness is reported, the Supervisor will be responsible for ensuring that the injured or ill person gets first aid and if required gets to their doctor as soon as possible. An Incident Report Form should be completed

Commence Injury Management Process – After medical care has been received:

the injured employee must notify the supervisor of the outcome of the doctors visit within 24 hours;
the injured employee must forward a WorkCover Medical Certificate along with completed Workers Compensation Claim Form and other relevant documentation to the Supervisor
the supervisor must forward completed Workers Compensation Claim Form along with WorkCover Medical Certificate and other relevant information by Express Post to the Occupational Health, Safety & Injury Management Administrator.
the supervisor must notify the Mission’s Occupational Health, Safety & Injury Management Administrator within 24 hours if the injured or ill employee is off work;
the Occupational Health, Safety & Injury Management Administrator must notify the Workers Compensation Insurer of the injury within 48 hours of the injury occurring.

Develop Return to Work Plan: When and if the injured / ill employee is, according to medical judgement, able to return to work on suitable duties the Occupational Health, Safety and Injury Management Co-ordinator will facilitate the provision of suitable duties either within the injured employees normal duties / work area or where necessary different duties / work area within the Mission, in consultation with the injured employee, supervisor(s) and nominated treating doctor. Suitable duties may mean a staged return to work, a change in duties and / or hours. Where retraining is necessary it will be provided. Suitable duties are of a temporary nature and designed to assist the injured employee to return to pre-injury duties.

The suitable duties will be documented in the Return to Work Plan, approved by the nominated treating doctor and signed by all relevant parties. Where required the services of an interpreter can be arranged.

Consultation: Wesley Mission will regularly inform staff of their rights, responsibilities, Policies and Procedures on Return to Work.

This Policy and Procedure will be reviewed every 2 years in consultation with staff through the following mechanism:-

OH&S Committees and / or OHS Representatives;
displayed within work locations; and,
intranet.

Disputes: The Mission is committed to the prevention and resolution of disputes regarding the injury management of any injured employee through effective communication, consultation and adherence to the Return-To-Work Program procedures. If necessary, advice and help can be sought from the WorkCover Assistance Service (ph: 13 10 50) and / or the NSW Workers Compensation Commission.

Confidentiality: All Return to Work information concerning an injured employee is confidential.

Quality policy

Wesley Mission is a church committed to the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a ministry of word and deed which ministers to human need and provides personal and family care.

We are deeply committed to serve in an ethical, caring, Christian way.
We accept responsibility for quality practices in all areas of our work -
operational, social, financial and environmental.

To achieve this, we will consistently

work in partnership with our stakeholders to understand and meet their needs and expectations;
encourage, educate and empower all our employees to participate in quality improvement and
risk management activities through teamwork and cross functional co-operation;
develop and document objectives and targets for all our activities and clearly communicate them
to our stakeholders;
commit to conform to relevant internationally recognised industry and environmental standards
as well as regulatory and contractual requirements;
measure and regularly review our performance across all our activities, ensuring that we continue
to improve in all we do;
apply vigorous innovation and continuous improvement in our work practices, wherever possible
exceeding minimum requirements.

The provision of a quality service is the responsibility of every employee. Each person is expected to embrace organisational values and objectives and to commit to the minimisation of risks and continuous improvement.

Wesley Mission Sydney Executive Management endorses, regularly reviews and promotes this quality policy through active participation in risk management and quality improvement activities and leadership by example.

Rev. Keith V. Garner
Superintendent
Issue 2, February 2006
Wesley Mission is a part of the Uniting Church in Australia.

About Wesley