Rescue 101 Work Health and Safety (WHS)
On January 1st, 2012, the current Work Health and Safety Laws (WHS) replaced the Occupational Health and Safety laws (OHS) in NSW. WIRES must adhere to these changes and therefore has a primary duty of care to ensure, as far as reasonably practical, the health and safety of WIRES volunteers and other persons while undertaking volunteer activities or duties.
WIRES meets its obligations to its volunteers, so far as is reasonably practicable, to provide a safe and healthy workplace by:
- Providing WIRES WHS procedures and considerations;
- Providing information about safety equipment and PPE;
- Providing specialised training (Rescue 101, ICC, RICC and Advanced Species Training);
- Requiring volunteers to report incidents to the Rescue 101 Coordinator or Volunteer Support Manager;
- Requiring volunteers to accept that safe work practices are the responsibility of the individual undertaking WIRES activities.
WIRES has a responsibility to ensure that volunteers are made aware of any risks associated with the rescue and handling of native animals. Those risks can include personal injury, injury to others and the transmission of disease.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you only attend rescues in which you have been appropriately trained to undertake, are within your medical and physical capacity to be carried out safely, where you have the appropriate equipment and resources to do the task correctly and safely and have conducted a comprehensive risk assessment and applied appropriate risk controls.
Please refer to the Rescue 101 Training Manual or the Rescue 101 Terms and Conditions for further WHS information, such as:
- Personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Working with chemicals, stress management
- Risk management
- Safety when working with animals
- Zoonotic diseases and infectious agents
- Injuries from scratches and bites
- Road safety
- Slips, trips and falls
- Allergies
- Water safety
- Biosecurity and cleaning
- Low light conditions
Reporting and Incident
To report an incident that has occurred whilst carrying out a WIRES rescue, please email [email protected] to request an incident reporting form.