Reporting hazards and incidents

This notice covers the specific provisions that relate what is collected, and how information is used or disclosed when a hazard or incident is reported. This notice is provided in addition to the provisions of the Employee Privacy Notice (covering staff), and the Student Privacy Notice (covering students). 

Collecting your information

When you make a report, you may need to provide personal or health information relating to you or someone else. The amount of information provided is up to you, but if we do not receive relevant information, we may not be able to provide the best outcomes for you or meet our legislative obligations. 

Additional information may be collected when a report is investigated, including from you, witness, your manager, or staff who have responsibility to implement actions. 

Using your information

Your information will be used to receive reports, communicate with you and relevant parties, investigate, implement corrective actions.

De-identified information is also used to monitor and manage risks relating to our spaces and activities, including quality improvement and planning purposes, and our legislated response and reporting obligations.

Who receives your information:

Access to personal and health information is restricted. Information is primarily collected and held in the HIRO RiskWare system, which is managed by the Health and Safety Team in the People Unit.

To facilitate the above purposes, personal and health information may need to be shared where it is necessary, with your managers, the insurance team, your faculty/unit’s H&S Advisory Committee member, and/or the Executive Director People Unit. For students, reports may be shared with the Student Services Unit (SSU) to facilitate support. Where reports are marked as confidential, the Health and Safety Team will liaise with you prior to taking any action. 

Personal and health information will only be disclosed to the extent necessary to manage a hazard or incident and associated risks and corrective actions, for insurance purposes, and to facilitate any legislated reporting obligations, or where otherwise permitted or required by law. 

Your rights and our contacts

If you have any questions about this notice or wish to make a request to access or correct your information relevant to a reported hazard or incident, please refer to the Manager Health and Safety, via safetyandwellbeing@uts.edu.au. 

Refer to privacy at UTS for further information, including our privacy contacts.

The person involved, or if they are unable to do it themselves a UTS staff member acting on their behalf, should report the accident or incident within 24 hours of its occurrence using HIRO.

If a student comes to a staff member to report an accident or incident, that staff member must:

1. Supervise the student to complete and send the HIRO report, or
2. Advise the student to complete and send the HIRO report, and the staff member is to separately complete a HIRO report themselves and send it off immediately.

The immediate supervisor or the person responsible for the work area will receive an email notification from the HIRO system, informing them that an accident or incident has occurred. An Action Plan must then be completed using HIRO, outlining what actions they will take to prevent a recurrence of the same type of incident.

Investigations and Action Plans (corrective measures)

In completing this section of the HIRO system, the immediate supervisor or the person responsible for the work area fulfill their responsibility, using the risk management principles, to:

• conduct an accident or incident investigation, and
• in consultation with the person involved, plan and implement any corrective actions.