When we think about providing a safe workplace, we often focus on the obvious things – machinery, electrical equipment, slips and trips, or manual handling.
But the work environment itself can create risks.
Remote and isolated work, along with exposure to heat and cold, can create significant workplace health and safety risks if they are not properly identified and controlled.
Two areas that businesses sometimes overlook are:
- workers exposed to heat or cold, and
- workers undertaking remote and isolated work.
The Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice provides practical guidance on both of these issues. Importantly, the Code applies across different types of workplaces, including workplaces that are mobile, temporary or remote.
For a small or medium business, the important question is simple:
Have we considered the environment our people are actually working in and put reasonable controls in place?
When reviewing remote and isolated work, businesses should also consider whether workers can communicate effectively, access emergency assistance and receive appropriate supervision and support.
Working in Heat and Cold
Under the WHS Regulations, a business must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that workers exposed to extremes of heat or cold can carry out their work without risk to their health and safety.
This does not only apply to people working outside.
Heat and cold can be an issue for workers in:
- kitchens
- workshops
- warehouses
- factories
- cool rooms and freezers
- loading docks
- construction sites
- maintenance activities
- outdoor events
- vehicles and mobile plant
The risk will depend on much more than simply looking at the temperature.
You should consider the temperature, humidity, air movement, radiant heat, physical demands of the work, clothing or PPE worn, and how long workers are exposed.
For example, a worker carrying out strenuous manual work outdoors may be at greater risk than someone undertaking light duties in the same temperature conditions.
These considerations are particularly important for remote and isolated work, where a worker may not have immediate access to a supervisor or colleague if they become unwell.
Managing Heat at Work
Working in excessive heat can result in fatigue and heat-related illness and may also affect a worker’s concentration and ability to perform their work safely.
This becomes particularly important where workers are driving, operating machinery, working at heights or undertaking other higher-risk activities.
Businesses should follow the normal hierarchy of controls when managing heat. Depending on the workplace, controls could include:
- rescheduling strenuous work to cooler parts of the day
- providing shade
- providing air-conditioned or cooler rest areas
- increasing ventilation or air movement
- isolating workers from heat-producing equipment
- providing ready access to cool drinking water
- introducing appropriate work and rest arrangements
- reducing the duration of exposure
- providing suitable clothing and PPE
- training workers and supervisors to recognise signs of heat-related illness
Safe Work Australia specifically recommends considering elimination first – including whether outdoor work should be postponed or cancelled during high temperatures – before moving through substitution, isolation, engineering, administrative controls and PPE.
There is not simply one temperature where every workplace must automatically stop work.
The appropriate response depends on the risk and the circumstances of the work.
That is why businesses should have a process for assessing conditions rather than relying on someone saying:
“We’ve always worked in this weather.”
For workers undertaking remote and isolated work, businesses should also consider how heat-related illness would be identified and managed if the worker became unwell without another person nearby.“We’ve always worked in this weather.”
Don’t Forget Cold Environments
Cold conditions also need to be managed.
This can include outdoor workers during winter, but it can also include employees regularly working in refrigerated areas, freezers or other artificially cold environments.
Controls may include:
- limiting exposure periods
- job rotation
- regular rest breaks
- warm rest areas
- suitable waterproof or thermal clothing
- providing somewhere for wet clothing to dry
- buddy systems
- appropriate supervision
- maintaining communication with isolated workers
SafeWork NSW recommends measures including job rotation, regular rest breaks, warm shelters or vehicle cabins, suitable protective clothing and communication arrangements for remote or isolated workers in cold environments.
These controls can be particularly important when remote and isolated work means workers are unable to quickly access assistance.
Again, the controls should reflect the actual level of risk.
Remote and Isolated Work
Remote and isolated work does not necessarily mean someone working hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town.
It is work where a person may be isolated from the assistance of other people because of the location, time or nature of the work. That assistance could include rescue, medical assistance or emergency services.
For example, remote and isolated work could include:
- a cleaner working alone at night
- a maintenance worker attending a site after hours
- a salesperson travelling between regional locations
- a worker visiting a customer’s home
- a delivery driver
- a technician working at an unattended site
- someone working from home
- a worker opening or closing a venue alone
- employees working in genuinely remote locations
So do not make the mistake of thinking:
“We’re in Newcastle or Sydney, so remote and isolated work doesn’t apply to us.”
A person working alone in a metropolitan workplace can still be undertaking isolated work.
The key consideration is not simply whether the workplace is geographically remote. Businesses need to consider whether a worker can obtain assistance if something goes wrong.
Managing Risks When Workers Undertake Remote and Isolated Work
One of the simplest ways to assess remote and isolated work risks is to ask:
If this worker was injured, threatened, became ill or had an emergency, how would we know and how would they get help?
Businesses need to provide an effective means of communication for workers undertaking remote and isolated work and ensure workers can access emergency assistance.
Depending on the level of risk, controls might include:
- scheduled check-ins
- mobile phones
- duress alarms
- GPS or worker monitoring systems
- satellite phones or emergency beacons in genuinely remote areas
- buddy systems
- journey or movement records
- escalation procedures when a worker fails to check in
- emergency contact arrangements
- training workers on what to do during an emergency
The communication system needs to be appropriate for the location.
Giving someone a mobile phone is not particularly useful if there is no mobile coverage where they are working.
For businesses managing remote and isolated work, communication arrangements should therefore be tested and reviewed to make sure they work in the locations where workers actually perform their duties.
Consider the Nature of the Work
The level of monitoring should also reflect the risk involved.
For example, consider the difference between:
Worker A: Completing paperwork alone in a locked office for an hour after everyone leaves.
Worker B: Travelling to an isolated site to repair machinery.
Both workers may technically be working alone, but the consequences if something goes wrong are very different.
Your controls should therefore be based on the actual risk, rather than simply creating a blanket “working alone” procedure.
This is an important part of effective WHS risk management. Businesses should consider the work activity, environment, location, communication options and potential consequences before deciding what controls are necessary.
For remote and isolated work, the level of supervision and monitoring should be appropriate to the hazards and circumstances involved.
There Can Also Be Psychological Risks
Remote and isolated work is not only a physical safety issue.
Workers may have reduced access to supervisors, colleagues, information and support. Remote and isolated work can therefore interact with psychosocial hazards such as poor support and increase the risk of psychological harm.
This is particularly worth considering for workers who regularly:
- work alone
- work from home
- travel extensively
- work night shifts
- deal with difficult members of the public
- work in other people’s homes
Regular contact from a supervisor is not just about checking whether the worker is physically safe.
It can also be an important part of providing support and supervision.
For businesses with employees undertaking remote and isolated work, regular communication can help workers stay connected to supervisors and colleagues while also providing an opportunity to identify emerging safety or wellbeing concerns.
Businesses should consider these factors as part of their broader workplace health and safety and psychosocial risk management processes.
What Should a Business Do?
You do not necessarily need to make this complicated.
Start by looking at your operations and asking:
Who works in heat or cold?
Who undertakes remote and isolated work?
Who works alone or away from our normal workplace?
What could reasonably go wrong?
How would they obtain assistance?
What controls do we currently have?
Are those controls actually working?
Talk to the workers who undertake the work. They will often identify practical issues that are not obvious from the office.
For remote and isolated work, workers can provide valuable information about communication gaps, difficult locations, emergency response arrangements and other practical challenges.
Then document the controls through your WHS risk assessments, procedures, inductions, training, supervisor checks or other appropriate parts of your WHS system.
Controls should also be reviewed regularly, particularly when work locations, activities, equipment, working hours or environmental conditions change.
The Takeaway
Managing the work environment is about much more than providing a building with lights, toilets and drinking water.
Businesses need to think about where, when and under what conditions people actually work.
If your people work outdoors, in hot or cold environments, after hours, alone, on the road, at client premises or in remote locations, these risks should form part of your WHS risk management process.
In particular, remote and isolated work risks should be identified, assessed and controlled based on the actual circumstances of the work.
A useful question for every business owner or manager is:
“If one of our workers was alone and something went wrong, would we know – and could we get help to them?”
If the answer is not clear, that is probably an area worth reviewing.
Further guidance
Safe Work Australia provides the Model Code of Practice: Managing the Work Environment and Facilities, together with specific guidance on working in heat and remote and isolated work.
SafeWork NSW also provides practical guidance for NSW businesses on extreme heat, cold environments and remote and isolated work.
Businesses should review the relevant guidance and consider how it applies to their specific workplace, workers and activities.
For practical support with your WHS risk management, workplace health and safety requirements, or remote and isolated work procedures, contact CHD Partners through our Contact Us page.
