Lecture 5 OHS Legals

7/27/2019 Lecture 5 OHS Legals

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Business Communication

OHS Legal and Responsibility



The History of OH&S

• Occupational Health and Safety legislation in

Australia originated from a 1956 building

site, where employees were lifting hot

buckets of bitumen (black residue fromdistillation of petroleum)up to the roof of a

five storey building.

• (go to website for rest of story)http://www.safetyculture.com.au/news/ohs_history.php



OH&S DEFINITIONS

• Following are definitions of terms that we

will be using through out this topic

• It is good for you to become familiar with

these terms as they will not only help youwith this course but also in the workplace

when OH&S issues arise



OH&S Definitions

• OHS or OH&S: Occupational Health and Safety

• Occupation: A job or a profession – an exchange

of labour or work for money

•

Health: a healthy state of wellbeing, free fromdisease

• Safety: The condition of being safe; freedom

from danger, risk, or injury

• Security: the state of being free from danger orinjury and freedom from anxiety or fear



OH&S Definitions

• Hazard: is the potential to cause harm

• Risk: a source of danger; a possibility of

incurring loss or misfortune



OH&S DEFINITIONS

• Accidents: any event that result in personal

injury or disease no matter how minor, to

any event that results in death.

• Incidents: any event or occurrence.

Eg. Dangerous circumstances arising from

non-compliance with OH&S procedures. E.g.

Chemical spillage with no body harm.



Accidents

Five different accidents (3.06 mins)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwCyVku1HvI&NR=1

CFMEU workplace safety (1.32 mins) - A poem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQl2kHwavvU



OH&S Definitions

• Corporate: A corporation is a legal entity

separate from the persons that form it

• Liability: Exposure to damage (legal or

financial) or the state of being legally obligedand responsible

• Lawsuit: a legal action by one person or

entity against another person or entity



ACTIVITY

• You are at work, you see a colleague about

to do something dangerous that could

seriously injure them.

• What should you do?

• Under OH&S Act, what does Duty of Care

mean in this situation?



OH&S Definitions

• Emergency: A serious situation or

occurrence that happens unexpectedly and

demands immediate action

• Negligence: An act or instance of carelessness or neglect; disregard; failure to

provide the necessary provisions



OH&S Definitions

• Ergonomics is the science of designing the

job, equipment, and workplace to fit the

worker. Proper ergonomic design is

necessary to prevent repetitive straininjuries, which can develop over time and

can lead to long-term disability



Ergonomics

• Health & Safety workplace – Ergonomics (10.13 mins)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kfZzRDHdc8&feature=fvw

Stage one Ergonomics (cartoon) 3.16 mins)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC6nYJ0F6tU&feature=related

STS Workstation Ergonomics (8.03 mins) Good as explains why?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ZpruQRMAc&feature=related



Identifying Hazards

• What are hazards in the workplace?

• Remember the accident video?

• They can be anything from grease or water

on the floor to not wearing professionalsafety equipment and many other reasons

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4yj9KK

FGng – Hazards in the workplace



ACTIVITY

• You will be assigned a place (Office, factory,

train, kitchen, shop, construction site)

• With the people around you, in a group

discuss and come up with 5 potentialhazards that could harm someone,

• Also, decide on a solution for each hazard

•

Report back to the class



OFFICE



FACTORY



TRAIN



KITCHEN



Hazard Identification Tools

• Must be according to Org. Requirements, mayinclude:

– Self designed tools developed as part of an OHSmanagement system

– Tools and templates developed:• by external consultancy services

• by business associations for use by memberbusinesses

•

for public use and found within businessmanagement publications, including thosepublished by OHS regulatory authorities



Hazard Record Keeping

• It is appropriate to keep a log book or

incident report book to record all identified

hazards, their risk status and action required

• Records are usually based on theorganisation’s procedures



Identify Hazards

• Methods may include:

• Conduct of site safety audits

• completion of a safety checklist

• inspections of the workplace

• observation of daily activities

• investigation of accidents and incidents

•

review of injury or illness registers• Environmental monitoring of the workplace



Identify Hazards con’t

• Investigation of staff complaints or reports of safety concerns

• Review of staff feedback via consultative

processes, such as meetings, surveys or

suggestion box submissions



Hazard Identification (1)

• Involve other personnel where appropriatein the hazard identification process

Hazards may include:

–

physical environment e.g. – working space for workers

– Lighting

– hot and cold environments

–

Fresh air vents



Hazard Identification

•

Climate, weather exposure, shade protectionfrom rain, sun or wind

• Exposure to flood, fire and storm

• Noise levels

•

Electrical items• Flooring

• Pests

• Crowds

•

Electrical cables• Wild animals




• Plant e.g.

– Machinery

– Tools – Appliances

– equipment




• Working practises e.g.

– Opening and closing procedures

– Security procedures

– Inappropriate rostering and shift

allocation

– Length of time spent at certain task and

allocation of breaks




• Security Issues e.g.

– Theft and robbery

– Irrational or angry, drunk or drug-

affected customers

– Bomb scares



References

• wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

• http://www.answers.com/topic/safety

• Oxford Compact English Dictionary• Commonwealth of Australia 2007 OHS Training Package



Why is OHS important?

• Not only common sense to be safe, but also

a legal requirement by all employers and

employees

• This includes both Corporate and Personalliability and responsibilities



ARE YOU AT RISK?

IN AUSTRALIA YEARLY:

- Workplace injuries occur every 2.4 seconds

- 1 in 12 workers are injured seriously enough

to lodge workers compensation claims everyyear (650,000 workers)

- Over 2500 work-related deaths

annually…compared to 1,596 road fatalities

and 300 homicides. (NOHSC, NationalOccupational Health & Safety Commission

2003)



WHY WORRY?

WHY WORKPLACE ACCIDENTS CAN

DESTROY BUSINESSES

Government fines & penalties, Lawsuits &

negligence claims, Increased workerscompensation premiums



NSW OH&S Act 2000

• The laws as made by parliament

• Written in ‘legal language’

• For full details please visit the NSW WorkcoverAuthority website: www.workcover.nsw.gov.au



NSW OHS Regulations

NSW OHS Regulations (2001)

• Made under the Occupational Health andSafety Act 2000

• Provide more details than the Act and supportits general requirements

e.g. Manual handling, Noise, First Aid



Where to find the laws

• A summary of the NSW OHS Acthttp://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/formspublications/publications/Pages

/WC00100.1_SummaryoftheOccupationalHealthandSafetyA_.aspx

• A summary of the NSW OHS Regulationshttp://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/formspublications/publications/Docu

ments/reg_summary_ohs_2001_106.pdf



Definitions (1)

• Legislation: the act of making or endorsing

laws

•

Compliance: is either a state of being inaccordance with established guidelines,

specifications, or legislation or the process

of becoming so i.e. obeying the law



Definitions (2)

• Acts: An Act of Parliament is a law enacted

as primary legislation by a national or sub-

national parliament i.e. is the law

• Regulations: refers to "controlling human or

societal behaviour by rules or restrictions."

Regulation can take many forms: legal

restrictions or an authoritative rule i.e. whatyou need to do to follow the law



Important Documents

1.The NSW OHS Lawhttp://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ohasa2000273/

2.The NSW OHS Regulations

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_reg/ohasr2001364/3. Industry Codes of Practice

http://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

4. Workplace policies and procedures(apply to specific workplace)



Codes of Practice•

It is a practical guide for achieving thestandard of safety required by OH&Slegislation for a particular area of work.

• Are a set of rules outlining theresponsibilities of proper practices for anindividual or organization.

•Provide practical advice on how to achievehealth and safety

• Should be followed, unless another solutionsare found.

• Used in conjunction with Acts andRegulations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnu9CP-noC8



Codes of Practice

• Codes of practice themselves are not legally

enforceable, but can be used as evidence in

court to show whether or not an employer

has satisfied an OHS Act or Regulation or theemployer’s common law duty of care.



Criminal vs Civil Law

• Civil Law: the law of a state dealing with the

rights of private citizens

•

Criminal Law: the area of law that focuseson crimes and their punishment. The crime

can be committed by an individual or a

group of people

• OHS legislation fits under civil and criminallaw



Criminal law

Civil law

E.g.

• Contract Dispute

• Intellectual Property

• Negligence

• Accidents

Criminal law

Eg.

• Murder

• “guilty mind“ - means an

intention to commit some

wrongful act.



NSW OHS Penalties

• If you break the OHS laws you can be finedthe following:

• Corporate fines vary from $550k to $1.65m

•

Directors and Managers from $55k to $165kand/or 2 to 5 years imprisonment

• Supervisors and Employees from $3k to $5k



Employer Responsibilities

• An employer must ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of all theemployees of the employer.

(a) ensuring that any premises controlled by the employerwhere the employees work are safe and without risks tohealth,

(b) ensuring that any plant or substance provided for use bythe employees at work is safe and without risks to health

when properly used,(c) ensuring that systems of work and the working

environment of the employees are safe and without risks tohealth,

(d) providing such information, instruction, training andsupervision as may be necessary to ensure the employees’

health and safety at work,(e) providing adequate facilities for the welfare of the

employees at work.



Employer Responsibilities

• Employers can promote OH&S legislation byencouraging and communicating themessage of safety and healthy for forming aOH&S committee.

• As a committee they can promote OH&Ssafety, design OH&S policies andprocedures,

• Promote and conduct OH&S training

•

Monitoring safety and conducting regularmaintenance checks.



Employee Responsibilities

Follow safety

procedures

Attend training &

apply learning

Report potential

hazards

Use all equipment

correctly

Wear personal

protective equipment

Avoid skylarking

(to fool around or act

strangely)



Follow workplace procedures

• Correctly and consistently follow the

organisation's health, safety and security

procedures according to the relevant

legislative requirements. This may involve: emergency, fire and accident

incident and accident reporting



Follow workplace procedures

hazard identification

risk control

risk assessment

security, includingo documents

o cash

o equipment

o people

o key control systems



WHY DO YOU NEED SAFE WORK

PROCEDURES?

• To protect employees from potential risks inthe tasks they perform or from the

equipment they use to carry out a task.

• To comply with HO&S regulations

(reinforced by law)

• To establish what is acceptable in the

workplace.

• To prevent rather than cure• To protect anyone entering the premises.



Workplace procedures

Eg. Supermarket

1.Opening and closing the cash registry.

2. Acknowledge every customer that walks in and

keep and eye on them at all times.

3. Lock the front door at the end of the shift.

4. Turn the surveillance camera on.



References

Definitions:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/gallivant

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Define_Act_of_parliament

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulations

wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

http://www.english-test.net/toeic/vocabulary/words/057/toeic-definitions.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_Australia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_law_%28common_law%29

Restart Consulting Presentation August 2009Paul Cutrone (OHS Legal Advisor) of Sparke and Helmore August 2009



OHS Activity

1. List and describe the workplace procedures

in an Accounting firm.

2. List and describe the workplace procedures

in an IT Department of an organisation.



Revision

• Laws, regulations, legislation & Acts Group

assessment and presentation

• Have a good week and see you next week