More than two decades of working jobs with a health and safety focus provided Sean with the ideal preparation for becoming a Health and Safety Representative (HSR).

Sean is the Principal Electronics Technician with the Department for Environment and Water’s (DEW) Water Resources Monitoring Unit.

Based at Regency Park, his work takes him to some of the most remote parts of South Australia where he maintains the technology that monitors aquifer and river levels, as well as automation of the water supply for remote communities.  In his travels he also assists with tasks like bore maintenance and worked on the River Murray to measure the 2022-23 flood and reinstate damaged infrastructure.

Sean has been with the DEW since 2019 and became an employee representative on the Health and Safety Committee almost immediately. He was voted in as a HSR in 2022 and was last year named a finalist in the department’s DEWing us Proud Awards in the Safety and Wellbeing category.

But his association with workplace safety stretched back much further, to the early 2000s.

We caught up with Sean to learn more about his career in safety and his current role as a HSR.

When did you start working in safety?

WHS has been a big part of my work for a long time. I started off in exploration and mineral evaluation doing geophysics on drilling programs. Back in 2004 in Western Australia there was a transition from contractors just working underneath Rio Tinto’s JSAs (Job Safety Analysis) to contractors having to have systems in place that were as good as Rio Tinto’s systems.

The company I worked for all of a sudden had to write JSAs for everything we did, whereas before that we just worked for Rio Tinto under contract and used all of theirs.

I did a lot of work writing those and that was my entry into it. I changed companies a few years later to a new start up here in SA and I contributed heavily to developing their safety system.

I was approached to work for another company that did aquifer testing and testing new bores for flow as well as providing drilling services. They asked me to become a health and safety officer and they sent me to school to do a Cert IV in Work Health and Safety.

What does your HSR role involve?

We have one of the most eclectic mixes of activities going on here – people working out of boats, people working out in the middle of the desert, people working with pressurised artesian wells as well as things like cranes, trucks and earthmoving equipment and electronics – there is a lot of safety to stay on top of for our people and a lot of things need to be in place to make sure they are safe.

I felt that it was important that somebody with industry experience could lend that to the team here. We are probably one of the most practical work groups in the department, so getting across some of our experiences and concerns for the safety policies the Department might write is really important.

Our work group fluctuates between 20 and 30 people. The majority of people here work in the field at least half of the time. Being a field-based work group is difficult but because I have come from a field-based background, as well as being a safety officer I sort of understand those difficulties and I can sit in the middle and make sure that others understand the challenges too to a degree.

My management within the department are great, they give me all the time in the world to do this and they are very dedicated to it. No one has squeaked about the amount of time I’ve spent doing anything safety related and that is a good thing.

Trying to inspire people is the challenge.

Have you ever had to issue a Provisional Improvement Notice (PIN)?

No. I have had to advocate sternly in the past on certain things but I have never had to issue a PIN and I’m proud of that because no one here wants to do the wrong thing. They might not necessarily understand what the right thing is but they don’t want to do the wrong thing. I have found that if I speak to the right people about the right things – sometimes with a little bit of vigour – the right things happen and everyone goes home safely.

We haven’t had an injury other than things like a bee sting – nothing serious – and no one has gone to hospital since I have been involved with safety in this team.

What would you say to people thinking about becoming a HSR?

Do it. You’re not going to lose anything by being a HSR but you are going to learn a lot and you are going to be able to function more effectively within the health and safety system as a consequence.

In terms of professional development, if you go and be a HSR for three years and do the three courses and then you go on later in your career to be a manager or a director you are going to have a much better foundation around your responsibilities to workers underneath you if you have been a HSR earlier in your career. It’s not just about helping people straight away, there are opportunities there for you to learn as you develop your own career.

There are a lot of opportunities when you are a HSR to learn things that will be useful for the rest of your career. A lot of people aren’t aware of their PCBU responsibilities, especially as they move up.

What aspect of being a HSR do you find the most rewarding?

No one getting hurt. That’s it for me, I just don’t want to see anyone getting hurt. Before coming here I’ve seen guys get hurt, I’ve seen guys get scalped by rotating machinery, I’ve seen guys lose bits and pieces of their bodies to pinch points and I know any number of guys who are industrially deaf. I don’t like seeing that and I do my best to make sure that no one I work with now is going to end up like that.

Do you know a HSR who is making a valuable contribution in the workplace? Nominate them for our HSR Heroes recognition program.

Further links:

• HSR Hub