Rail Safety Worker Assessment

Why is there a Rail Safety Workers Health Assessment?

A Rail Safety Workers Assessment is part of the national system of health assessments for rail safety workers aims to ensure that employees can continue to conduct their work safely. It also aims to ensure early identification and management of health conditions that might impact on an employees’ work if left untreated.

Why are there three categories of Rail Safety Workers Health Assessment?

There are three categories based on risk. Determination of which category a rail safety worker falls into is based on consideration of the following question: To what extent does the worker’s physical and psychological health impact on the safety of the public or the rail network?

Category 1

These are the highest level of safety critical worker. These workers require a high level of attentiveness to their task. Sudden incapacity or collapse (e.g. from a heart attack or blackout) may result in a serious incident affecting the public or the rail network. An example on a category 1 task is driving a single-operator train on the commercial network.

Category 2

These workers also require a high levels of attentiveness. A Category 2 worker is in an environment where fail-safe mechanisms, or the nature of their duties, ensure sudden incapacity or collapse does not affect safety of the rail network. For example, signallers are often classified as Category 2 because fail-safe signal control systems protect the safety of the network in the case of worker incapacity.

Category 3

Around the Track Personnel (ATTP) who perform non-safety critical tasks around the track (an uncontrolled environment).