The contract manager took on the role of Deputy Health and Safety Representative (HSR) a few months after starting with the Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment in 2022.

A focus in the role has been dealing with the challenges of a more than 100-year-old building, including eradicating mosquitoes.

“It was an issue in Spring and Summer, with the warmer weather,” Susan says.

“Nobody should come to work and have to deal with mosquitoes. The issue was escalated, we got traction, activity has occurred to address it, and we may have resolved the issue.”

In her HSR role, Susan raised the health and safety risk and worked with the office’s Facilities Management team and the Building Manager to fix the issue.

This included investigations that ranged from conducting visual inspections, using equipment to inspect air-conditioning ducts to repairing and cleaning drains. All the efforts which have taken place seem to have done the trick.

Susan’s manager Louise Mills says Susan is thriving as the deputy HSR in the OCPSE work group, which includes about 60 staff.

“She brings everyone together and she has a really good lens – people will walk past things, but Susan will see it and take action, and she takes the time out to make sure everyone is safe,” Louise says.

This week SafeWork SA is proud to recognise Susan’s achievements as part of the HSR Heroes program.

We caught up with Susan to talk about her time in the HSR role.

Q: Mosquitoes aside, what does your HSR role involve?

A: Some of the work I do is simply for the fact that you just want the people you work with to be safe. I help make sure everyone is working in a safe and compliant workplace, so minor things don’t become major events. It’s a mindset. You are interested in making sure you are safe and that others you are working with are safe.

What convinced you to become a HSR?

I’ve always been interested in safety. To be able to do the training to understand the complexities and intricacies of how to apply the Act and to start learning what the obligations are was appealing to me and turned out to be very useful.

What would you say to someone thinking about becoming a HSR?

Only do it if you are in it for the right reasons. It’s on top of your day-to-day role so you need to make sure you can make time when required – it doesn’t take up a huge amount of time – you just need to make sure that you are involved because you care about the people you work with.

It’s great from a knowledge perspective and you can meet some other HSRs who are very knowledgeable and have broad backgrounds, so they can assist in some ways as well.

Have you ever had to issue a provisional improvement notice (PIN)?

No. With the mosquito issue we had some good traction and worked towards a resolution. It’s very satisfying that people can come to work and not have to worry.