Plant safety: managing plant risks in Australian workplaces

Managing plant risk means controlling the hazards of machinery and equipment at every stage of its life: buying it, identifying it, operating it, maintaining it and disposing of it. Under the WHS Act, a business that controls plant has a primary duty of care to keep people safe so far as is reasonably practicable. The model Code of Practice, Managing the risks of plant in the workplace, shows you how to meet that duty for each machine on your site.

Plant covers a wide range of equipment, from forklifts and cranes to a bench grinder. Forklift rollovers, entanglement in moving parts and equipment failures still cause serious injuries and deaths in Australia. Most of them are preventable with a clear register, a sound risk assessment and controls that people actually use.

What counts as plant?

Plant is any machinery, equipment or device used for work. The common groups are:

• Mobile plant: vehicles, cranes, forklifts, elevating work platforms (EWPs) and earthmoving equipment.
• Fixed plant: compressors, generators, conveyors and production machinery.
• Powered tools: portable drills, grinders, saws and nail guns, powered by electricity, air, hydraulics, fuel or cartridges.
• Amusement devices: rides and inflatables used for entertainment.

Plant usually carries a higher risk than hand tools because of its size, power and moving parts. That's why it often attracts licence, competency and operating requirements that a hand tool doesn't.

What does the law require?

You must manage plant risk so far as is reasonably practicable. That means:

• Identify the hazards of each item of plant, including moving parts, pinch points, energy sources and hazardous substances.
• Assess the risk of injury from each hazard, and choose controls from the hierarchy of controls.
• Consult with workers who use the plant, because they know how it behaves in practice. The WHS Act requires you to consult on health and safety matters, including plant.
• Check your controls work, and review them after an incident or when the plant or the work changes.

The model Code of Practice on managing plant risks gives more detail on each of those steps. Your state or territory regulator may have adopted its own version, so check the one that applies to you.

Managing plant from purchase to disposal

Before you buy or hire

Assess the risk before the plant arrives, not after. Ask:

• Is it designed for the task and the site, including the ground, the load and the other people nearby?
• Does it have guards, emergency stops and any other safety features the job needs?
• What maintenance and inspections does the manufacturer recommend, and can your team carry them out?
• What training and licences does the operator need?

Register and label every item

A plant register is the starting point for everything else. For each item, record:

• an identification number and description
• the safe working load, where it applies
• inspection and service dates
• maintenance and repair history
• the operator's licence or competency record

Label each item clearly, so anyone can see its inspection status and any warnings. A register that nobody updates is almost as bad as none.

Operate the plant safely

Safe operation depends on clear rules that people follow:

• Follow the manufacturer's instructions and the safe work procedure for each machine.
• Run a pre-start check every shift, and take out of service anything that's damaged or faulty.
• Mark exclusion zones around operating plant, so pedestrians stay clear.
• Plan traffic routes where vehicles and people share the site, and keep the plan up to date as the site changes.
• Confirm operators hold the right high-risk work licence for the equipment they use. Licences apply to classes such as forklifts, cranes and boom-type EWPs. Keep proof of competency for other plant too.

Maintain, guard and isolate

Most serious plant incidents happen during maintenance, cleaning or repair, when the machine is opened up or still has power. Put these controls in place:

• Guard moving parts. Fixed guards stay in place. Interlocked guards stop the machine when opened. Guards must stop the hazard without creating a new one.
• Lock out and tag out (LOTO). Isolate every energy source, including electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic and stored energy such as springs. Lock the isolation point, tag it, and test that the plant won't start before work begins. Only remove locks through a set release process.
• Use qualified people. Only competent technicians should repair plant, and their work should be logged in the register.

Where a task needs the guard off, such as during fault finding, use extra controls for that time only, and put the guard back as soon as the task finishes.

Plan for emergencies

Think about how the plant could fail or cause harm, and plan for it. Common scenarios include a rollover, a fire, a crush injury or contact with powerlines. Your plan should say who calls for help, how the machine is made safe, how the injured person is reached, and how the scene is secured. Run drills so people know what to do, and report every incident and near miss, however minor.

Decommission and dispose

Plant doesn't stop being a hazard when it leaves the site. Before you move it on:

• isolate it, and remove oils, fuels, batteries and other hazardous substances
• mark it as decommissioned in the register
• move it with equipment that suits its weight and size, using a licensed carrier where needed
• dispose of hazardous materials under environmental rules

The table below summarises the key records for each stage of a plant's life.

Why a plant safety management plan helps

Each item of plant needs its own controls, and the paperwork piles up fast. A plant safety management plan keeps the whole system in one place: your policy, procedures, risk assessments, licence records, emergency plans and maintenance logs. It also means each new machine goes through the same process, so nothing gets skipped.

The support documents you'll use most are a plant and equipment register, a pre-start checklist, a plant risk assessment, a LOTO procedure and an incident report. The Plant Safety Management Plan pulls these together, and the Plant and Equipment Register gives you the record to start with.

If you're working on guards in particular, see the importance of machine guarding in mechanical plant. For electrical equipment, read managing electrical risks in the workplace. For the reasoning behind control choices, see the hierarchy of controls.

Common questions

Is a plant register legally required? The law doesn't prescribe a format. Some plant does need registration with your regulator, though, and you need to know what plant you have, what hazards it creates and how it's maintained. A register is the easiest way to keep track of all of that.

Do operators always need a licence? No. Certain high-risk plant, such as forklifts, cranes and boom-type EWPs, requires a high-risk work licence. Other plant doesn't, but you still need to show that the operator is trained and competent to use it.

How often should plant be inspected? Check the manufacturer's schedule, then add any inspections your risk assessment calls for. Operators should do a pre-start check every shift.

Do I have to consult workers about plant? Yes. Consultation is a duty under the WHS Act. Ask the people who use the plant how it's really used, and involve them when you choose or change controls.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current law with your WHS regulator.