Complying with health and safety regulations is a number one priority for Australian business owners. Maintaining a safe workplace is essential if you want to prevent injuries and illnesses that could negatively impact your company and your team members. A healthy working environment means happy employees, less absenteeism and improved work performance.
Training staff on job safety and assessing emerging hazards regularly are other ways of managing your workers’ wellbeing in the workplace. Meeting health and safety standards includes aspects such as carrying out annual backflow testing Melbourne plumbers offer commercial property owners.
Plumbing plays a vital role in keeping your workplace a healthy and safe environment for employees and visitors to your building. Keep reading as we share plumbing tips for maintaining a safe workplace.
4 Plumbing Tips for Maintaining a Safe Workplace
1. Conduct Regular Workplace Inspections
Conducting workplace inspections gives you the opportunity to identify risk areas that could result in accidents or illnesses. These health and safety inspections include using a checklist to inspect environmental concerns such as noise, temperature and ventilation. Other aspects to consider should be examining and testing tools and equipment and inspecting work processes.
When it comes to finding out what is happening on the ground, your employees are your best source of information. Workplace inspections include listening to workers’ concerns and mitigating potentially dangerous incidents and hazards raised by them.
When your staff report plumbing issues such as blocked drains, leaking toilets and scalding water, an inspection should be performed immediately.
2. Identify Plumbing Issues Sooner Rather than Later
Identifying plumbing issues early on will prevent the problem from turning into a major crisis that could result in expensive downtime while repairs are being carried out. The following plumbing issues need to be dealt with sooner rather than later:
- Backflow issues: If your backflow prevention system breaks down, you run the risk of exposing your workers to contaminated water. This results in illnesses such as diarrhea, vomiting and gastrointestinal health concerns.
- Gas leakages: While not easy to detect, long-term exposure to leaking gas can cause your workers to experience headaches, breathing difficulties and even death. If you suspect gas leakages in your building you need to call a commercial plumbing company immediately.
- Unsafe water temperature: By law and according to safety standards, Australian businesses are required to maintain water temperature. Hiring a skilled commercial plumber to perform thermostatic mixing valve testing prevents issues such as scalding water coming from your taps.
You can prevent a major disaster from happening when you identify plumbing issues as soon as possible. This not only saves your company having to pay expensive repair bills but prevents you from landing in hot water with the authorities!
3. Perform Annual Backflow Testing
By law, Australian businesses need to have backflow testing done every 12 months by an accredited plumber. The test results are sent to the relevant water authority board to ensure your commercial property complies with local health and safety standards.
Regular backflow testing catches problems in the early stages, reducing the risk of water contamination in the workplace. The plumber will inspect the backflow prevention system to ensure it’s in proper working order and that the drinking water is clean and safe for human consumption.
Faulty backflow prevention devices can result in expensive liability claims and medical bills of workers who fall ill because of unhealthy drinking water.
4. Hire Professional Commercial Plumbing Services
If you take your responsibility as a business owner seriously, you want to make sure your workers’ health and safety needs are always met. Hiring the services of a professional plumbing company ensures that your building’s plumbing is in good nick while complying with the government’s health and safety regulations.
Hiring a professional plumbing company gives you access to certified backflow technicians and plumbers. Trained to do installations, repairs and maintenance, these skilled experts maintain plumbing systems in accordance with local standards.
When using vendors that perform commercial plumbing Melbourne businesses should look for the following offerings:
- 24/7 emergency services for handling urgent problems to prevent a business shutdown
- Licensed and accredited certification
- Efficient and friendly customer service
- Highly-skilled plumbers who are equipped to handle a wide range of jobs
- A wide range of services that include annual inspections
- Transparency and detailed invoicing
Hiring a reputable commercial plumber gives you peace of mind your workplace is safe for everyone who enters your property.
Final Thoughts
Maintaining a safe workplace is vital for protecting your workers, your business integrity and your profit margins! But, you’re also required by Australian law to ensure the working environment is conducive to the health and safety of employees and the general public coming onto your property. The building’s plumbing is one of many aspects that need to be inspected regularly.
In-house workplace inspectors can ensure a crisis is prevented before it escalates into a serious problem. However, hiring the services of a reputable commercial plumbing company is necessary—you can’t compromise and try to fix it with a DIY project.
Having the name of a reputable plumber on your speed dial saves your business time and money in the long run!
