Last week’s WorkSafe Awards recognised some truly inspiring champions of excellence in workplace health and safety and return to work practices, including the 2025 HSR of the year Manny Mason and the second time OHS Leadership/Achievement winner Seymour Whyte Construction.
Congratulations to all WorkSafe Award winners and finalists. The quality of this year’s winners was impressive.
Eight WorkSafe Award winners were announced over seven categories:
- OHS Leadership/Achievement – Seymour Whyte Constructions
With their second win in two years, Seymour Whyte’s work on the Healesville – Koo Wee Rup Road Project delivered the major infrastructure project with no long-term injuries. The team integrated safety strategies from the very beginning of the planning process, opting for elimination of hazards or engineered controls wherever possible. The key risks of traffic interface and plant/plant/people interfaces required safety measures to be embedded in the entire construction process. Three of the solutions developed for those hazards were unique, including the successful trial of a Melbourne University developed barrier wedge piece which is now approved for mainstream use.
- Excellence in Preventing and Managing Psychosocial Risk – Manor Lakes Community Learning Centre
Wyndham City Council’s employees at the Manor Lakes Community Learning Centre transformed a workplace where violence, aggression and abuse of staff were causing those employees to feel dread at the thought of going to work, into a collaborative community space. Employees developed a vision of what they wanted the space to look like, then designed the roles, training and behavioural response framework to reach that ideal. They developed relationships with local schools, held regular safety and collaboration meetings, and obtained the approval of Council Executive to appoint two youth engagement activators to proactively engage with local youth. Employees now love the energy and the vibe of their very busy, and sometimes noisy, workplace, and young people are reporting a sense of connection and ownership.
- Farm Safety Solution – Warakirri Cropping
This male-dominated business is successfully addressing psychosocial by co-ordinating regular site visits with their employee assistance program professionals to create opportunities for their employees to develop trusting relationships and reduce the perceived stigma around asking for support. The work performed by Warakirri Cropping’s employees create risks of isolation, high job demands and fatigue, but a lot of them had not felt comfortable talking about how those risks were affecting them. Now, they are the ones learning how to express themselves, driving the health topics to be discussed at site visits, when those visits should happen, and whether they want to speak inside, outside on the farm or outside of farm visits.
- Leading Return to Work Practice – Royal Melbourne Hospital
The Royal Melbourne Hospital has established an early intervention program called Injury Assist to focus empowering managers to support injured employees from the beginning of their return to work journey. Employees are diverted from their regular workload to suitable duties that enable them to continue working within their capacity whilst receiving treatment and support for their recovery. Since focusing on the Injury Assist program Royal Melbourne Hospital has seen a significant decrease in claim length and better engagement from injured employees and managers.
- Worker Return to Work Achievement – Maree McLean and Dennis Gabriel
Maree McLean had worked as a business manager at St Mary’s Primary School in Swan Hill for 35 years when she sustained a serious psychological injury. From the beginning St Mary’s return to work coordinator engaged an occupational rehabilitation provider and Maree engaged a psychologist to support her through recovery. Maree worked with her principal through numerous return to work plans and a complete redesign of her role, determined to not let this be the reason she finished work.
Dennis Gabriel and his wife were employed as park managers at the Yarrawonga Riverlands Tourist Park when he fell through a laserlite roof, sustaining multiple rib and vertebral fractures, a serious head laceration and almost losing his life. With the assistance of his wife, his occupational therapists and a rehabilitation consultant engaged by his employer, Dennis began his return to work six weeks later. Over the next five months he continued physical therapy and gradually increased his work hours, allowing him to return to a normal life and re-establish his sense of routine, identity and purpose.
- Workplace Health and Safety Solution of the Year – Natural Growth Partners
The hazardous manual handling hazards associated with the routine and repetitive task of ramming in tree stakes prompted Natural Growth Partners to develop a new method of tree planting. Traditional tree planting requires a two-step process to plant the tree and then ram 3.5kg stakes into the ground. Using recycled materials Natural Growth Partners developed Tree Coach - a system that locks strong, lightweight stakes to a watering bowl that is installed whilst planting the tree, with no ramming required. The product has proven successful with over 100 councils across Australia and New Zealand using Tree Coach, eliminating a key hazard affecting their landscaping employees.
- Health and Safety Representative of the Year – Manny Mason
Employees of the Ballarat Council are proud to have Manny Mason as their HSR, describing him as principled, staunch, humble and a quiet achiever. Manny is a team leader in Ballarat’s Arboriculture Unit and in his 15 years as an HSR and union delegate he has held the Council accountable on safety issues and provided a strong voice for his colleagues. He summarises his approach to the HSR role as, “I’d rather have a hard conversation than have someone get injured.” Whether supporting and advocating for his DWG members through sensitive and difficult safety issues, to collaborating with them and negotiating with management to develop solutions to unique hazards, Manny epitomises the characteristics of a valuable employee representative. As one of his fellow arborists says, “We need more Mannys in the world.”
SafetyNet highly recommends viewing the videos from each category winner for inspiration on how employers can consult with employees to develop a workplace that ensures everyone goes home physically and psychologically well.
Read more: WorkSafe Awards | WorkSafe Victoria