Health and Safety

Shell Geelong is committed to ensuring a safe and healthy workplace for employees and the community.

Health

Wellbeing Awards

Safety

Shell Geelong Refinery and Shell Lara LPG Terminal - Safety Case Summary

Shell & Contractor Safety Centre

The refinery’s health team takes a structured approach to assessing the health risks associated with the refinery work environment, reporting on health performance and assessing the health impact of projects as well as providing medical and emergency response services.  

The health team runs a number of proactive initiatives focused on improving employee health and emotional well-being including flu vaccinations, cholesterol testing and quit smoking programs.

The refinery is a participant in an innovative study being conducted by the University of Queensland in collaboration with Harvard University, which screens for and treats depression in the workforce. By identifying workers suffering from depression, the Work Outcomes Research and Cost-Benefit (WORC) Project seeks to enhance the quality of life of workers and those around them (such as co-workers, family) as well as providing increased job security because the worker’s situation is understood.

The refinery also participates in Health Watch.

In October 2006 the refinery won a Wellbeing Award for its proactive approach to lowering stress levels among employees.

The Wellbeing Awards are held during Barwon Region’s Mental Health Week in October and are supported by the Rotary Club of Highton Kardinia. They acknowledge achievements in the area of mental health. The refinery has introduced a number of actions including mentoring and stress training that have seen a marked drop in the number of cases of stress within its workforce.

 

“If employers and business can understand the issue of mental health and create work environments that are supportive and flexible, the long-term gains for individuals and businesses cannot be understated. Proactive projects such as the one undertaken at Shell enhance the wellbeing of the workplace and contribute to better outcomes for individual employees.” Toni van Hamond, Chair, Mental Health Week Committee

Safety is Shell’s number one priority. In September 2006, a major milestone was achieved - working three million work-hours without a lost time injury (an injury requiring time off work).

To celebrate, Shell Geelong Refinery continued its support for the City of Greater Geelong’s Learn-to-Swim Scholarship Program, winner of the Victorian Aquatic Industry 2006 Resusci Anne Outstanding Aquatic Programming Award.

This performance reflects extensive efforts in recent years to introduce a steady, consistent change in the way the refinery, and every employee works. A key message being promoted, every day at work as well as during special events such as Safety Week in June 2006, is the importance of individual responsibility and how, collectively, safety performance can be improved when individual standards are lifted.

In 2006 external recognition of the increasingly high standards being achieved at the refinery was received:

• In May, Victorian WorkCover Authority (VWA) conducted its annual audit of the refinery’s safety case. The safety case is a comprehensive Risk Management Plan that identifies potential hazards and implements measures to avert them. Each year the VWA inspects aspects of the safety case. In 2006 the refinery received its best ever result with the VWA finding no areas of non-compliance; and,
• Approval was received from Energy Safe Victoria for the refinery to operate an Electrical Safety Management Scheme (ESMS). Approval came after a rigorous inspection and assessment process lasting about three years. Shell’s application, led by electrical engineer Debbie Schroer, required the refinery to demonstrate how it could not only meet, but better, the safety outcomes and objectives of the Electrical Safety Act 1998.

Safety has the highest priority within Shell and we take a systematic approach to managing safety and preventing incidents that may place our people, our neighbours, the community, the environment and our facilities at risk.  This approach is reflected in the Shell Geelong Refinery and Lara LPG Terminal Safety Case Summary.

The refinery’s commitment to safety has continued. In April 2007, a further milestone - four million work-hours without a lost time injury - was achieved.

In early 2004, we opened the Shell and Contractor Safety Centre at the refinery. The centre reflects international research that has found effective adult learning is more readily achieved in a hands-on (rather than class room) environment.

The safety centre incorporates 18 display areas that deal with:

• manual handling,
• electrical isolation
• cranes
• rigging and forklifts
• chemical awareness
• asbestos removal
• hydrojetting and grit blasting
• working at heights
• scaffolding
• hot work
• safe mechanical isolation
• confined space entry

Many require the learner to participate in an interactive exercise - for example, at the height safety display, learners can check old height safety equipment for faults, practice donning and doffing a safety harness and check various anchor points for suitability. 

The safety centre is an initiative driven by Shell/Contractor HS&E Forum.