Safety, Health & Wellbeing
TasRail cares for the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, contractors, visitors and people in our community.
We are focused on proactive, rather than reactive, risk management and believe that the amount of time spent in proactive safety actions is directly proportional to the time spent in incident investigation and recovery.
Working safely is fundamental to the success of our business. A safety or health incident could lead to personal harm for an individual, which we strive to avoid at all costs. Employees are required to stop and complete a pre‑task hazard assessment before commencing work activities to minimise the risk of an unplanned event. All our people are empowered – and encouraged – to stop work if they don’t feel safe.
TasRail works under the principle that all jobs can be performed safely regardless of the complexity of the task and everyone has a right to a safe working environment. The belief that all incidents can be prevented is built into the way we work. No one comes to work expecting to be involved in an incident, and there is an active culture of reporting any conditions that could lead to an incident. Before commencing activities, hazards are identified by the people performing the work and controls put in place to mitigate the risk to as low as reasonably practicable. We continuously review, improve and recognise successes in our safety performance. Our Health and Safety Policy is updated annually to reflect the changing priorities and needs of the business. It focuses on continuous improvement in the core areas of risk management, human factors, leader safety interactions, occupational hygiene and control assurance.
SafetyCircle
A key initiative underpinning TasRail’s workplace culture is the SafetyCircle Cultural Change program. The program works to integrate the health and safety of staff and management into the culture and “the way we do it here”.
At its core, the SafetyCircle is a simple thinking tool and communication tool. It is focused on everyone at the workplace working consistently to get “Home Safe and Well Today and Every Day”. It brings Workplace Health & Safety into a personal, risk-relevant and positive context. The SafetyCircle program is considered a key enabler in continuing to deliver a step change in both the TasRail culture and safety performance.
TasRail committed to the SafetyCircle program in February 2016 and the program remains visible and successful in 2023.
Health and Well-being
TasRail recognises that people need physical AND mental health to thrive.
The business has a robust and well-developed approach to physical and mental health in line with our SafetyCircle principles.
TasRail continues to invest and monitor best practices in this space, recognising that its employees need to be provided with the appropriate skills to respond if exposed to a mental health condition personally and also to ensure the skills to provide support to others impacted by these events as required. The business has a team of Mental Health First Aiders who can provide support and encouragement to fellow workers.
TasRail supports and participates in national industry initiatives such as Rail R U OK? Day, Rail Safety Week, as well as TrackSAFE Foundation workshops. These platforms provide the opportunity to continually promote health and well-being amongst employees.
