Safety Ambassador Frank Zeigler
Background information
I am the CEO of a dynamic business which conducts work in some of the most unusual places including underwater, in raw sewage and methane reactors, confined spaces, at heights and with wild animals to name a few. We also teach in classrooms and on some of the most interesting sites you could imagine, including wind towers, oil rigs and sea going vessels. Our staff of 24 people has been working since the late 1970s and we have never had a claimable injury or time lost to an accident or injury. We firmly believe that the most dangerous a workplace you work in can be the safest workplace if you apply a proper hierarchy of control to all jobs and follow them properly.
My working career started in the Victoria Police in a range of different sections and departments where amongst other duties I was the HSR for my Department. My job specification included diving, firearms, and traffic and general duties as well the entire gambit of the unexpected. I then commenced operations in my own company and served in the CFA at Board level for 12 years and even today remain strongly involved operationally. I have served in Local Government for 4 terms (12 years) and also served for 2 terms as Mayor of the Glenelg Shire Council (Victoria). I presently operate a RTO, (Registered Training Organisation), Safety Company and Diving Company with my Partner. We both have the same passion for safety. We have won the Victorian Work safe awards for providing the best solution to a health and safety risk in 2008. The device is a “smartarm” and enables the extraction from a confined space of an entrant without the need to enter the space to affect a rescue.
Why workplace safety is important to me
Any injury or death at work is avoidable and unnecessary and with the right attitude, policies and procedures and most importantly a commitment from all in and visiting the workplace can make injuries and deaths at work a thing of the past.
My plans for national Safe Work Australia Week
1. Ask every one in our working environment to come up with at least 1 new safety initiative,
2. Award a dinner for two, for the best idea with prizes for second and third best ideas;
3. Review what we are doing well and refresh our thinking to see what we can do to make them even better! I.e., are our assessment tools sharp enough to save us, but not too sharp to hurt us?
4. Ask our clients for a critical review of our procedures to see if we are doing things as safely as we can;
5. Engage all partners and family members to draw an annual safety calendar which we will print for use at work and at home of the ‘Five most dangerous things we must protect against”
6. Swap safety officers from the two main worksites to assess each others workplace with their respective safety committees to ‘refresh the critical’ look at how things are and are done and report back to the workgroups on recommendations.
Why I accepted the role as a national Safe Work Australia Week Safety Ambassador
1 main reason – I do not think we can ever do enough to protect our best people from workplace incidents which can lead to accident or injury and the more focus on what really matters is never enough.
Page last updated: 18/10/2009