Rail Safety Worker Medicals

Contractors to Queensland Rail and other companies require health assessments.

The Rail Safety National Law requires rail transport operators to have and implement a health and fitness management program, complying with the requirements prescribed under a regulation, for rail safety workers who carry out rail safety work on or in relation to the operator’s rail infrastructure or rolling stock.

Such a system includes a responsibility to monitor the health and fitness of employees and contractors who perform rail safety work. The National Standard for Health Assessment of Rail Safety Workers provides guidance for accredited rail organisations to meet these obligations.

The aim of a health assessment program is to ensure that rail safety workers have the level of health required to perform their jobs safely.

There are three different types of health assessment based on whether the work undertaken is safety critical or non-safety critical.

Category 1

Applies to rail safety workers who undertake safety critical work and whose ill health may result in sudden incapacity or collapse leading to a serious incident affecting public safety or the rail network.

Category 2

Necessary for any rail safety workers who undertake safety critical work where sudden incapacity will not impact on the safety of the public or the rail network.

Category 3

For all rail safety workers who undertake non-safety critical work and whose health and fitness does not impact directly on the rail network but who are required to protect their own safety and that of other workers.