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1. Chapter 1 - Provide information to the Work Team About WHS Policies and Procedures

Performance Criteria Element 1

2. 1.1. The Health and Safety Environment

1.1. The Health and Safety Environment 

Here in Australia, we have a set of health and safety laws that aim to give everyone who works the same basic rights with regard to the environment within which we work. Essentially we all have the right to be in a workplace that will not endanger our safety in any way. Before we move on to the specifics of the legislation, let’s examine the overall structure of the legislative framework.

Health and Safety Framework

Note that as you move down the framework – more and more details and practical advice is provided.

One of the key aspects of all health and safety legislation is that it places legal obligations on employers, managers and even you as an employee in an organisation. These obligations are aimed at ensuring that a workplace is kept as safe as possible – and they ensure that all staff at all levels of an organisation work towards building a safer and ultimately more effective workplace. 

3. 1.2. The Legislative Framework

1.2. The Legislative Framework 

We have already outlined the fact that as an employee or manager, you have a number of obligations that you will be required to meet under health and safety legislation. But what legislation are we talking about? Here in Australia, the legislation that covers health and safety in the workplace is both State and Territory based. In general, this means that each State or Territory has their own health and safety legislation. For the most part – the differences between each are minor and in this manual we will focus on the general themes that are present in each State’s legislation – which are for the most part quite similar. It should be noted that there is a national piece of legislation that covers all staff that are working for the Commonwealth no matter which State they are working in.

As well as being set out in legislation – some of the obligations that you must meet are also outlined in the regulations. Regulations take specific items within legislation and flesh them out in more detail. We will examine what regulations are in more detail later. All legislation and regulations are legally binding on all Australian businesses – as an employer, manager, or employee, it is your duty to obey them.

Also present in the legislative framework are standards and Codes of Practice. Standards provide detail, while Codes of Practice give practical guidelines for putting specific regulations into effect. Generally these are just recommendations – however some standards may be legally enforceable.

Health and Safety Acts

As we previously mentioned, there is not just one piece of legislation covering health and safety in Australia – rather each State and Territory has its own piece of law covering the subject in the form of its own Work Health and Safety Act. The Acts of each State are:

For the most part, the central tenet of the legislation is very similar – they all strive for the same main objectives – however it is important that you determine where any differences may lie. You can get more information on the legislation that covers your specific workplace by referring to the legislative and Workplace Health and Safety websites, or http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/model-whs-laws/model-whs-act. For the most part, you will find that the major differences between States and Territories lie in terminology and the processes that each Act puts in place.

As just mentioned, all health and safety legislations have the same major intention. That intention is twofold. They first establish the fact that the major obligation for keeping workers safe lies with the employer, and secondly, they encourage a cooperative approach to Work Health and Safety.

It is important to remember that the Acts work to protect all people in an organisation. You may not realise this, but as well as protecting staff, managers, and employers – the legislation works to protect volunteers, customers, clients, contractors, and visitors to a workplace. This means that any health and safety plans must encompass processes to protect each of these groups of people.

The Acts also look to build a consultative, proactive approach to managing health and safety in the workplace. Rather than imposing the will of the manager on all employees, health and safety legislation attempts to build consultation with staff into the process of developing policy and processes for health and safety. Working towards a proactive approach means that the legislation looks to preventing incidents in advance – identifying risks, and taking action rather than waiting for an incident to occur and then establishing means of preventing the incident from occurring again.

The Duty of Care

A central tenet of all health and safety legislation all over the world – is the establishment of a duty of care. This is one of the key obligations that is established in all WHS (Work Health and Safety) Acts. State and Territory WHS Acts contain obligations to exercise a duty of care in relation to health and safety in the workplace. Essentially, the duty of care means that employers must attempt to do everything that they can to remove or minimise risks in the workplace – put another way, they must exercise as much care as possible in attempting to prevent workplace incidents, injuries, and illnesses.

Likewise, all employees, and visitors to workplaces, have a responsibility for others on that site. The employee is required to protect themselves and others. It is not just the responsibility of the employer to exercise a duty of care. This goes back to the proactive approach. It is much better to have a fence on the edge of a cliff preventing people from falling off than it is to have an ambulance waiting at the bottom to care for those who have fallen.

Responsibilities and Obligations

As we mentioned earlier – employers and employees each have a specific set of responsibilities that they have in relation to health and safety in the workplace. Even though employees do have some responsibilities (which we will address later in this Element), it is the employer (and managers who act on their behalf) who have the majority of the responsibility. The key responsibilities that an employer has are:

As well as your employers having responsibilities and obligations, you as an employee also have obligations that you must adhere to. These include:

The Regulations

Referring back to our legislative framework – you will remember that the regulations pick up particular issues from the Acts and add extra detail to them. Generally you will find that the regulations cover a single specific aspect of health and safety, and they will give detail to each of these issues – providing duties and procedures specific to the issue being examined. These issues are often related to a specific type of hazard – such as noise or machinery. Some of the key regulations in Australia are: 

Codes of Practice

Let’s now examine what a Code of Practice is. Essentially a Code of Practice is used to give detailed advice on how an employer can attempt to build systems and procedures that will allow them to meet the requirements of specific legislation or regulations. They are used as practical guidelines giving advice on how an organisation can comply with the Acts and Regulations. They can also be used to suggest ways in which risks in a specific workplace can be remedied. Some examples of Codes of Practice that are used are:

These are produced by Standards Australia and deal with specific workplace problems such as noise or exposure to chemicals. The standards themselves are used to provide technical guidance in relation to a specific problem. They are often used in the design of new products. For example, if you were producing a new desk for children you would need to refer to standards for safety of children as well as all other standards related to the manufacture of furniture. The standards are not legally binding, however, most generally regard them as being good practice.

4. 1.3. Internal Rules and Procedures

1.3. Internal Rules and Procedures 

As well as the external rules that are provided on a Federal and State level, there are rules that are put in place managing health and safety on an organisational level. These rules, policies, and procedures are important for all staff to be aware of. We will examine these rules and procedures in this section.

The requirements may include the following, however there are many industry-related specific situations not included here:

Policy and Procedure

In order to develop a health and safety plan for any organisation – it is crucial that you begin with developing a policy that encompasses everything that you wish to achieve. You will find that the sites mentioned previously can be of much assistance in the process of developing an appropriate policy. They have information available that you can use to provide you with the guidelines you need to develop a policy that is in line with the responsibilities and obligations that you, as an employer or manager, have in protecting your staff.

Briefly put, a policy can be defined as a statement on an issue that affects an organisation. This statement is used to define exactly what a particular organisation hopes to achieve in dealing with a given subject. In the case of WHS policy – the policies will define the organisation’s intentions with regard to the issue of WHS and how they plan to deal with it. Essentially, the WHS policy of an organisation should define:

 
Commitment By Management

It is vital to the success of any policy that senior management commit to the plan. That is they must understand the principles that underlie the need for the plan and they fully commit to its implementation within the organisation. They must be willing to enforce the policy if it is broken and work to ensure the effectiveness of the plan – reviewing it continually and making improvements where deficiencies are noted.

Consultation

A strong principle of WHS legislation in Australia is consultation – that is wherever an WHS issue is concerned, a supervisor should work with the team to find solutions using each team member’s detailed knowledge of the areas within which they are working. Regular consultation allows you to keep your staff members informed of the issues, as well as get detailed information from those who work in the areas on a day-to-day basis. Your staff members are in the best position to give advice as they are on the front line – operating in the area and thus they know what risks there are, what hazards are being faced, and what could be done to eliminate the hazards. You should also note that if you work with your team on the development of a health and safety plan, your team members are more likely to be cooperative since they were involved in decision-making from the start.

Consultation will also provide further information – this can be used by the organisation or the employee. Information may include:

There are a number of procedures that may be used for consultation. They vary industry-by-industry and according to the specific group you intend to receive the information. The procedures could include:

Health and Safety Committees and Representatives

One useful way of consulting with your staff (and in fact, ways that the WHS Acts state as being required) are the use of WHS committees and WHS representatives. You will need to examine the Act for your State or Territory to decide whether or not your organisation is required to establish a committee – however even if it is not required, they can be a useful way of providing a means of consultation between management and employees. There is also an important role in representatives and committees with regard to communication – having committees or representatives allows you to get health and safety information out to the staff. Representatives sitting on a committee will receive information regarding hazards and policies, and they can go back to their work areas and provide this information to them.

Communicating Identified Hazards

Whenever a hazard is identified in the workplace, you need to do something that will let other staff members know about the hazard. If you do not – you will be placing your staff in danger. We will examine the process of identifying and dealing with hazards in more detail later. However it must be noted that as an employer, you must make the workplace as safe as you possibly can which means ensuring that it is free of risks to your employees’ safety or health. In order to accomplish this, you need to first identify which hazards are present in your workplace, then establish ways of controlling them. There are a range of ways which can be used to control a hazard. Crucially, you must not stop here. Once you have identified the hazard, you must then communicate the hazard and any control methods that you have in place to your staff. You may communicate this using signs, passing information through representatives, updating procedure manuals, or training.

It is important that all staff are aware of what hazards exist in the workplace.

Training

Once again, we will be dealing with training in much more detail later, however at this stage, it is important to consider how training can be used as a communication method in WHS. As we stated earlier, you and your staff have certain responsibilities and obligations with regard to WHS in the workplace. Training is one method that you can use to communicate this information to your staff. You can use it to provide information on obligations, policies, or even to improve knowledge with regard to hazards and improving overall safety in the workplace.

5. New Chapter

1.1. The Health and Safety Environment

Here in Australia, we have a set of health and safety laws that aim to give everyone who works the same basic rights with regard to the environment within which we work. Essentially we all have the right to be in a workplace that will not endanger our safety in any way. Before we move on to the specifics of the legislation, let’s examine the overall structure of the legislative framework.

Health and Safety Framework

Note that as you move down the framework – more and more details and practical advice is provided.

One of the key aspects of all health and safety legislation is that it places legal obligations on employers, managers and even you as an employee in an organisation. These obligations are aimed at ensuring that a workplace is kept as safe as possible – and they ensure that all staff at all levels of an organisation work towards building a safer and ultimately more effective workplace.

6. Final Chapter

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