Common Safety Training Program

Australia’s oil and gas industry has adopted the Common Safety Training Program (CSTP) for all personnel working in offshore production and drilling facilities.

The CSTP aims to ensure that all new and existing employees have the same core foundation of safety skills.

As of 1 January 2012 it is expected that employers have processes in place such that:

all new employees attain a CSTP card; and

all existing workers have CSTP cards or are working towards attaining a CSTP card.


Who is required to hold a CSTP card?

  • All personnel new to the industry who begin work at an offshore production or drilling facility are required to undertake an off-the-job behaviour development and demonstration training program followed by safety behaviour observation in the workplace to attain a CSTP card.
  • All existing personnel who meet the experienced worker definition will have to go through a combined Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and safety behaviour observation process to attain a CSTP card.
  • Personnel who are frequent visitors offshore to a production or drilling facility; that is, they spend more than five consecutive nights on an offshore facility or undertake six or more visits offshore within a 12-month period must also attain a CSTP card.


Offshore construction workforces on construction vessels are currently exempt from this requirement. But contractors expecting to work in the Australian oil and gas industry on offshore production or drilling facilities must work towards having their personnel issued with CSTP cards.

There are two pathways to obtain a CSTP card:

1.A new start program involving a three day off the job behaviour development and demonstration training program followed by safety behaviour observation in the workplace.

2. The experienced worker program is available through a recognition of prior learning (RPL) process that replaces the off the job component but still requires the observation of prescribed safety behaviours in the workplace.

 

Process for new starts

1. New starts participate in a hands-on training program that requires them to demonstrate industry-prescribed safety behaviours (see below for training organisations authorised to provide CSTP).  On completing the course participants will receive a Training Organisation Observed Safety Behaviour Confirmation as evidence that they have successfully demonstrated the required behaviours during training.

2. The employee must then demonstrate these behaviours in the workplace. It is the supervisor’s responsibility to observe them over two swings and, if the behaviours are demonstrated, sign off the checklists in the Workplace Safety Behaviour Observation Checklist.  The worksite retains the completed checklists and forwards the Workplace Observed Safety Behaviour Confirmation to APPEA vie email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

3. The employee’s card will be issued once the workplace and the training organisation confirmations have been recorded in the national CSTP database.

Process for experienced workers

1. Evidence of the successful completion of safety-based training undertaken or the holding of a Minimum Industry Safety Training (MIST) card or equivalent must be seen and recorded. An induction program must be completed on site. Guidance on Recognition of Prior Learning lists suitable training program types and their relationship to the key behavioural  modules

2. Supervisors must observe the experienced workers' safe working behaviours over two swings, checking them off against those specified by the industry (see Workplace Safety Behaviour Observation Checklists). 

3. Once each observation checklist is complete, the supervisor or verifier is to sign off in the section provided. The documents are then kept as part of the workplace’s evidence (to verify that the process was undertaken correctly).

4. Next the Experienced Worker Observed Safety Behaviour Confirmation is to be completed and signed.

5. This confirmation is to be emailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it along with a digital head and shoulder image (passport-size photo).  Once these documents are recorded on the CSTP database (maintained by APPEA) and payment of the fee of $110 (inc GST) is received a CSTP card will beIndividual payments can be made by EFT to APPEA (details on Experienced Worker Payment Form).  Alternatively, if a company is putting several experienced employees through the CSTP, an invoice system can be set up with APPEA.

6. Each CSTP card issued will have a unique number. Most people already in the workplace have been provided with an ID number (eg employee number) that they must include on the signed Experienced Worker Observed Safety Behaviour Confirmation.  The CSTP card for experienced workers will carry this employee ID number preceded by a four-character reference for the organisation. 

For more information contact Leanne Drewitt, APPEA Senior Project Officer – People Strategies on 08 9426 7202 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

CSTP documentation for the new start program:

 

CSTP information and documentation for the experienced worker program:

 

CSTP information for workplaces:

 

CSTP documentation for the coal seam gas sector:


Training organisations authorised to provide CSTP:


Western Australia

Queensland

Victoria

Red Alert Australia www.red-alert.com.au

 

Northern Territory

Accrete www.accrete.net.au

 


APPEA and the CSTP Industry Advisory Group are currently working with several organisations to authorise them to deliver CSTP in Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria.

 

For further information on applying to become an authorised training organisation for CSTP, click on the following links or email the Independent Reviewer, Alf Standen at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

National OHS Harmonisation

 

Currently all Australian states and territories are responsible for making and enforcing their own work health and safety laws. Although these draw on a similar approach for regulating workplaces, there are some differences in the details and application of the laws.

 

In December 2009, the Commonwealth, state and territory governments agreed that a standard approach to work health and safety laws would improve productivity and consistency and reduce the administrative burden on industry. The governments endorsed the Model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act and agreed to enact mirror legislation in each jurisdiction.

 

A model Codes of Practice and a nationally consistent compliance and enforcement policy are now being developed. It is intended that the Model Work Health and Safety Act, model WHS Regulations and Codes of Practice will begin operating in January 2012.

 

In its submission on the Model WHS Regulations, APPEA made it clear that the oil and gas industry supports a harmonised approach to OHS legislation but that the offshore petroleum industry must retain its own performance-based safety regulation regime, which is based on higher safety standards than general OHS regimes across Australia.

 

But other parts of the industry will be affected by the changes. OHS legislation administered by the States and NT regulators does apply to sections of the oil and gas industry, including onshore petroleum, the coal seam gas sector and major hazard facilities. In addition, some types of activity such as the construction of LNG projects are covered by the various OHS authorities and their Acts and Regulations.

 

APPEA sees the potential for confusion in interactions between the Model WHS reforms and the many state-based Acts and Regulations that will continue operating. The Model WHS reforms will also affect existing electricity safety, dangerous goods and pipeline regulatory regimes, as well as industry-specific WHS regimes in various jurisdictions.

 

APPEA’s key concerns with the content of the model Regulations are:

§ The increased level of prescription and administration imposed by the Regulations.

§ The lack of clarity and guidance available about the relationship of the Regulations with existing State and Territory hazard-specific legislation.

§ The impractical consequences of some of the Regulations.

 

Industry has not had enough time in which to appraise and respond to the draft regulations. Companies have been unable to accurately determine the initial costs of implementing significant regulatory change or the ongoing compliance costs associated with what remain highly prescriptive regulations. However, APPEA estimates that at least two years will be needed to implement and roll out the necessary changes across industry.