At ARTC, safety is everything. This year, our No Harm value continued to guide our actions and activities to help ensure a safe workplace for our people and a safe network for our customers and the community.

Pathway to Zero Harm safety strategy

In 2019-20, we implemented the third and final year of our Pathway to Zero Harm safety strategy, with initiatives including:

• Enterprise Risk Management System (ERMS) – Implemented as a high priority to ensure enterprise-wide (including Inland Rail) risks are addressed to further enhance our risk knowledge.
• Safety and risk governance – Improvements were achieved through the re-organisation of business structures and processes.
• Safe Work Interaction program (SWI) – Implementation has enabled successful leader-led discussions with colleagues about the importance of safety and managing risks. Following the launch of the program, SWI champions have continued to conduct training for frontline leaders across the business.
• Fatal & Severe Risks Program – Continued rollout to our people to help build awareness of hazards and appropriate responses and behaviours.
• Just & Fair Culture Program – Continues to be progressively incorporated into the operating discipline of work.
• Driver & Vehicle Management Strategy – Continued to deliver as an ongoing campaign with the introduction of a driver behaviour code and online training.
• ICAM Incident Investigation Methodology – Now implemented as a business-as-usual activity, with an ongoing assurance measure to monitor the quality of investigation reports.
• Field Based Safety Leadership Development Framework – Developed with a focus on frontline safety leadership. The Certificate IV in Frontline Safety Leadership and Safety Leadership Diploma have been delivered across our Hunter Valley and Interstate teams.
• Role clarity in safety accountabilities – Delivered across the business to foster regular safety conversations in teams across the company.
• Health and fitness assessments – A review was undertaken against best practice across the industry.

Importantly, we have developed an update to the Pathway to Zero Harm safety strategy to deliver the next phase of our ongoing safety journey, which will include embedding the above initiatives as business-as-usual activities across ARTC. As part of this, a new Safe Work Improvement Program will be implemented between 2020-2023 to further improve our safety culture and deliver key improvements to safe working protocols for our people, visitors, contractors and external workers.

Safety Culture Health Check

Following a baseline survey in 2016, we undertook another Safety Culture Health Check in 2019 in partnership with Deloitte. Mapped against the Hudson Maturity Model, our 2019 results largely reflected those from 2016, with a small yet still encouraging increase in score from 65% to 66.5%, as well as confirmation that ARTC has robust systems in place to manage all hazards.

Safety performance

We remain committed to continually strengthening our proactive safety culture across ARTC with the overarching aim that no one is harmed at work or on our network.

Since 2006, our All Injury Frequency Rate has reduced by almost 90% and again achieved our target measure in 2019-20, as did our Medically Treated Injury Frequency Rate. However, our Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate did not meet the target measure this year, which is disappointing after we achieved zero Lost Time Injuries for the first time in 2018-19.

ARTC has introduced a Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR) to assist in accurately classifying various levels of injuries. The calculation of the TRIFR includes injuries that resulted in lost time or required medical treatment, plus new classifications of occupational injury/illness and injuries requiring restricted work. Work continues to review and validate injury data against the new classification definitions for reporting in 2020-21.

Support of national consistency in regulatory reform

ARTC continues to support the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator and collective efforts to promote a consistent national approach to regulatory reform.

During the year, we updated our Safety Management System to ensure compliance with several changes to the Rail Safety National Law that came into effect in July 2019, including changes around immediate occurrence reporting and drug and alcohol testing requirements.