Workers are responsible for reporting all work-related injuries, illnesses, incidents where a person was actually injured, could have been injured, or equipment was damaged. Citipointe Church has an active reporting, recording, investigation and corrective action process.  The terms of incidents and injuries in this context includes all “near miss” or “near hit” events, work-related illnesses and injury, and events that harmed or might have harmed any worker during the course of their work.

Citipointe Church has a documented procedure for reporting, recording and analysing incidents, injuries and work-related illnesses. 

1. The  Accident, Incident and Injury Report Form is an online form  to be completed by the worker or their manager within 48 hours of the injury or incident. 

2. All significant injuries are to be reported. 

3. Incidents where a person could have been injured or equipment damaged must be reported. 

4. It is the responsibility of each Manager to ensure the completed Accident, Incident and Injury Report Form is submitted to the Compliance Officer in Brisbane.

5. On receipt of an Accident, Incident and Injury Report Form, the Compliance Officer shall arrange, in a timely manner, for an investigation to commence. 

6. For all injuries and accidents, an investigation is undertaken and noted on the Report by the Compliance Officer in conjunction with the injured person involved and in the case of an injured child, consultation is with the parent. 

7. All accidents or incidents of a serious nature will be sent to the relevant Executive at the time of the report submission by the Compliance Officer. 

8. Each investigation shall have all notes relevant to the investigation in the initial report. All Workcover claims must have an investigation report completed.

9. All matters must be referred to the Committee of Management as soon as practicable.

10. All Workcover claims, significant incidents or potential insurance cases are submitted to the INC website portal.

1. If you are injured, Citipointe will look after your return to work. 

2. Workers are responsible for obtaining appropriate medical treatment for an injury. For work-related injuries, staff must get a Workers’ Compensation Medical Certificate from their Treating Medical Practitioner. They must immediately report all injuries to their Manager and Location Pastor or WHS Facilitator and shall actively participate in Workplace Rehabilitation plans and return to work duties with the RTW Coordinator.

3. Depending on the work-related injury, compensatory benefits payable by WorkCover may include weekly compensation payments, medical, hospital and rehabilitation costs, reasonable travel expenses and lump sum payment for permanent impairment. Compensation is not payable for damage to clothing, jewellery or vehicles.

4. To apply for workers’ compensation, a worker completes an Application for Compensation form. It is recommended this is completed with the RTW Coordinator in attendance for assistance in person in Brisbane and can be done by phone for other locations but also in person with the Location Pastor.

The investigation of injuries/incidents provides an opportunity to examine many aspects of our operations.  The key of the investigation is to identify control measures that will prevent a recurrence of the same incident/injury.  The focus is to identify deficiencies in the system and to make changes if necessary to prevent a recurrence.

The procedure starts with an investigating team nominated to conduct the investigation.  Depending on the seriousness or the complexity of the incident, a senior member of management, and a person with technical knowledge of the work and a WHS professional will be included in the team

The main stages of the investigation are: -

• Gather objective information and establish facts  

• Collect data that relates to the environment and the human factors

• Isolate the contributing factors 

• Determine corrective and preventative actions

• Prepare a report (containing a proposed action plan for management consideration and implementation).  

1. Citipointe Church management will evaluate the action plan proposed by the investigating team before taking preventative and corrective action.  Citipointe Church then either implements the corrective action provided by the investigating team, or develops a system that will address the deficiency with the current system and prevents any future recurrence. 

2. The new system will comply with the designated standards and WHS legislative requirements, and after implementation, will have an evaluation procedure to ensure its effectiveness. On completion of the investigation, the Committee of Management will be provided with a copy of the report to ensure that any recommendation has been actioned.  

Citipointe Church regularly utilises the data from the incident/injury register to identify injury/incident gaps, trends and areas of opportunity for improvement.  This will include developing corrective strategies, verifying the effectiveness of preventive or corrective actions and the development of objectives and targets for further improvements. 

Citipointe Church has a procedure to record in a register all injuries/incidents in the workplace. If the incident is a notifiable incident (see below), then Citipointe Church has an obligation to notify the Statutory Authority in accordance with their reporting requirements. 

A written notice in the required form is to be provided to the Statutory Authority within the specified time frame, or as soon as possible after Citipointe Church is aware of the injury/incident.

Any serious incidents must be notified immediately to the Citipointe WHS Executive Officer.  After becoming aware that any such incident has occurred, it is the WHS Executive Officer’s responsibility to report ‘notifiable incidents’ to WHS Qld by the fastest possible means:

• phone – call 1300 362 128 

• online – complete and submit an online incident notification form

• email – download and complete an incident notification form (PDF, 0.24 MB) and email it to whsq.aaa@oir.qld.gov.au

• fax – download and complete an incident notification form (PDF, 0.24 MB) and fax it to 07 3874 7730.

NOTE: WHS QLD requires that immediate notification is followed within 48 hours in writing by one of the methods above. 

Notifiable incidents

There are three types of notifiable incidents, relating to:

• the death of a person;

• a serious injury or illness of a person; and 

• a dangerous incident. 

Serious injury or illness

This is defined as an injury or illness requiring the person to have:

1. immediate treatment as an in-patient in a hospital; or

2. immediate treatment for:

• the amputation of any part of their body

• a serious head injury

• a serious eye injury

• a serious burn

• the separation of their skin from underlying tissue (such as degloving or scalping)

• a spinal injury

• the loss of a bodily function

• serious lacerations; or

3. medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance.

It is important to note that the treatment under (b) and (c) does not have to be as an in-patient in a hospital.

Dangerous incident

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 defines a 'dangerous incident' as a workplace incident that exposes a worker (or any other person) to a serious risk to their health or safety, emanating from an immediate or imminent exposure to:

• an uncontrolled escape, spillage or leakage of a substance, or

• an uncontrolled implosion, explosion or fire, or

• an uncontrolled escape of gas or steam, or

• an uncontrolled escape of a pressurised substance, or

• electric shock, or

• the fall or release from a height of any plant, substance or thing; or

• the collapse, overturning, failure or malfunction of or damage to any plant that must be authorised for use, or

• the collapse/partial collapse of a structure, or

• the collapse or failure of an excavation or of any shoring supporting an excavation; or

• the inrush of water, mud or gas in workings, an underground excavation or tunnel, or

• the interruption of the main system of ventilation in an underground excavation or tunnel.