Contractor WHS System
Review After Incidents
Independent assessment of whether contractor health and safety management systems actually worked, carried out after an incident, near miss or compliance breach. For principal contractors, asset owners and facility operators, and for lawyers and insurers.
When the System Is Put to the Test
Most organisations that engage contractors have a contractor safety management system on paper: pre-qualification, inductions, SWMS review, permits and audits. An incident or a breach is often the first real test of whether that system works in practice.
Karim Ali reviews the contractor management arrangements involved in the incident or breach from both sides: the system of the business that engaged the contractor, and the contractor's own system. The question is not whether the documents existed, but whether they controlled the risk on the day.
The findings show where the system broke down and what needs to change, in a form that management, the board, the regulator or an insurer can rely on. For contractor matters already in litigation, see Contractor Management Expert Witness. For a full investigation of the incident itself, see Incident Investigation.
The review starts from the incident or breach and works back through the system, so the effort goes where the failure occurred rather than into a generic audit.
Triggers for a Contractor System Review
- A contractor or subcontractor worker has been injured
- A serious near miss or dangerous incident involved contractor work
- The regulator has issued an improvement or prohibition notice
- A client or certification audit found contractor management failures
- Commitments under an enforceable undertaking need to be met
- Repeat incidents involve the same contractor or type of work
- The business needs to decide whether to keep using a contractor
- Officers need assurance to meet their due diligence obligations
Review Process
Each review is scoped around the incident or breach that triggered it. The process tests the system as designed against the system as it was actually used.
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Scope and Context
The incident or breach, the contractors and work involved, and the questions the review must answer are agreed at the start.
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System Documents
Pre-qualification records, contracts, inductions, SWMS, permits, supervision records, audits and contractor performance reports are gathered for the work in question.
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System as Designed
The documented system is compared with WHS duties, including the duty to consult, cooperate and coordinate with other duty holders, and with recognised practice such as the contractor provisions of ISO 45001.
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System as Used
Records are sampled, the site is inspected and people from both businesses are interviewed to see how the system actually operated on the job.
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Gap Analysis
Each stage of the contractor lifecycle is rated for effectiveness, and the gaps that contributed to the incident or breach are identified.
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Report and Improvements
The report explains what worked, what failed and why, and recommends proportionate improvements with priorities and owners.
The Contractor Lifecycle
The review covers each stage where contractor risk should be controlled, from selection to close-out.
Whether the contractor's WHS capability, licences, insurances and track record were checked in proportion to the risk of the work.
Whether WHS responsibilities, supervision and coordination arrangements were clearly set out, recognising that WHS duties cannot be transferred by contract.
Whether contractor workers received site inductions and the hazard, emergency and site rule information they needed before starting work.
Whether task risk assessments and SWMS were reviewed for adequacy, and whether permits and isolations were properly controlled.
Whether the work was supervised and checked in line with its risk, and whether unsafe practices were picked up and corrected.
Whether incidents, hazards and audit findings were reported, acted on and fed back into future engagements.
Reviews for Businesses
Karim works with principal contractors, asset owners, facility operators and businesses that use contractors for maintenance, construction and specialist work.
Deliverables are agreed at the outset and typically include:
- A review report with an effectiveness rating for each lifecycle stage
- The system gaps that contributed to the incident or breach
- A prioritised improvement plan
- A briefing for officers and the board
- A follow-up check that improvements are in place
Reviews Through Solicitors
Solicitors and insurers can commission an independent review of the contractor management arrangements involved in an incident, including the adequacy of each party's system where several duty holders share a workplace.
Where expert opinion evidence is needed for proceedings, see Expert Witness Reports.
- Review of contractor management after a workplace incident
- Assessment of how duties were shared between principal and contractor
- Review of a contractor's safety management system
- Assessment of improvements made after a regulator notice
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Is this the same as a contractor audit?
Not quite. A routine audit checks a sample of contractors against a checklist. This review starts from a specific incident or breach and tests whether the system controlled that risk in practice, so the findings target the failure.
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Do you review our system or the contractor's?
Usually both. The business that engages a contractor and the contractor each owe their own duties, and failures often sit where the two systems meet. The scope is agreed at the start.
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Can the review support our response to a regulator notice?
Yes. The review can identify the gaps behind a notice and recommend improvements, and a follow-up check can confirm they are in place. Correspondence with the regulator stays with your organisation and its advisers.
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Will the review rate our contractors?
The review rates how effective the system was at each stage of the contractor lifecycle. Where a particular contractor's performance contributed to the incident or breach, this is described factually with the evidence.
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Can you be our expert witness on the same incident later?
Usually not. Having reviewed the incident for one party, Karim's independence as an expert witness on that incident could be challenged. If litigation is likely, raise it at the outset.
Discuss a Contractor System Review
Contact Karim Ali to discuss the incident or breach, confirm independence and agree the scope of the review.