Who can use this policy
This policy can be used by all employers.
Commentary
Effective Workplace Health & Safety (WHS) policies and procedures are legal requirements. They also promote WHS good practice generally.
This policy covers general WHS obligations.
Communication
WHS policies and procedures should be communicated to all workplace participants, notably employees, but also contractors. Even short term visitors should be advised of any WHS requirements relevant to them. Anyone who performs work at your business premises should be aware of the policies and procedures which exist in the interests of workplace health and safety.
Training is a means to ensure workplace participants are aware of their responsibilities and obligations with respect to health and safety in the workplace. Effective training should include testing of each participant’s understanding of the relevant processes and procedures. Written records of all training sessions should be retained.
Hazard identification, elimination and control
Anything in the workplace which could potentially harm a person’s health or safety is a hazard. This means that hazard identification is crucial to good WHS practice. This can be achieved in a wide variety of ways. For example: an inspection checklist; encouraging people to report hazards to you; reviewing your injury records to identify causes, conducting random audits of work processes.
After hazards have been identified, they must be assessed for risk. That is, hazards should be assessed for the potential harm they could cause. Ideally risk should be eliminated. If this is not possible, risks should be controlled or minimised.
Hazard identification, elimination and risk control is only part of the process of implementing a safe workplace. You should be aware of occupational health and safety legislation and regulations in the State or Territory in which your business operates.
WHS regulations typically set out specific details regarding matters such as first aid, manual handling, hazardous substances, confined spaces, noise, certificates of competency for operators of industrial machinery (eg forklifts), consultation and many other relevant WHS issues. There are also various standards and codes of practice that you may need to know about. Check the website of the WHS department in your State or Territory.
Plan your attack
Once you have scoped the size of the safety requirements in your workplace, it is a good idea to have a plan of attack. Start by listing the issues you want to address. This could be a list of a few pages, but don’t be overwhelmed. It is common for businesses to become overwhelmed by the amount and detail of the requirements that need to be addressed.
Following the scoping exercise, set the order of priority which you want to follow to make changes and improvements. This order can be determined by looking at the most common type of injury, the most dangerous to the people at the workplace, and the most probable to cause an injury.
Seek help
When matters become complex, professional help should be called in. If you feel that you are not addressing the requirements of the legislation, you should seek guidance from WHS professionals. Even if you decide to call on professionals, the work you do in relation to gathering details about WHS issues in your own workplace, will be of assistance, produce better results, and save time and money.
Action plan and implementation
Once you have set priorities, look at who can be involved in getting the work done. If you have a team or WHS committee which can work together, it may be easier to address the issues compared to one person doing it. Using a team approach also builds commitment to safety and helps to spread the word to others.
Preparing a plan of action is the next step and this should be covered from two angles. One is the ad-hoc or ‘fire-fighting’ of daily safety issues, whereby the supervisor would address a hazard which is raised from time to time. The other is the WHS program for the business, which will address the WHS legislative requirements and other elements of your safety system including training, supervision, maintenance, inspection, information, record keeping, reporting of hazards and injuries and documentation of these processes.
Setting dates in your action plan will help you to keep track of the achievements made in the business, and is useful in reviewing whether you have been too ambitious or not ambitious enough in your objectives. In addition, good WHS can be enhanced by having dedicated WHS representatives to whom employees can address their concerns and who can actively monitor and implement WHS action plans.
WHS committees
Note that some jurisdictions do not require a committee or require it only for businesses of a certain size (eg more than 20 employees). Even though not required by law in some businesses, a committee can be very useful in promoting WHS.
Review your progress
It is a worthwhile exercise to chart your progress over the months and years. This will help to consolidate what you have achieved, what worked and did not work and to demonstrate the implementation process in your business.
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Important note to subscribers
The commentaries and documents in HR Advance are updated as necessary, to keep them relevant. You should familiarise yourself with the relevant commentary each time you create a document.
This document has been drafted to suit a wide variety of businesses, with a number of options available to enable you to customise the document to better suit your business. Nevertheless, you may need to make other changes to the document so that it suits the specific needs of your business. If you make additional changes, we cannot guarantee that the changes and modifications you make to the document will be legally compliant or enforceable.
This commentary and any additional information provided to assist you in creating this document, does not constitute legal advice.
If you are unsure about any aspect of this document (including the changes or amendments you make to it), you should seek appropriate advice from a lawyer, skilled in these issues. You should consult with your financial advisor in relation to any relevant taxation or financial issues concerning the document you create.
After creating this document, you should read through it carefully to make sure it meets your business needs and is consistent with other industrial instruments, policies and procedures which operate in your workplace. This commentary is not designed to be provided to employees or other workplace participants. |
Further information
Further information on how to use this policy can be found at the 'How to use these policies' tab on the Policies page of the HR Advance website.
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