Workplace Health and Safety in Australian Organizations
Discuss About The Guidance For Occupational Health Employers.
The essay helps in analysing the different kind of complexities in managing the health and safety in Australian organizations. The analysis is required to be done on the occupational health and safety procedures that has been adopted by the organizations in Australia to resolve such issues appropriately. The different kind of complexities in the workplace health and safety in different organizations that has been found in different articles of various organizations in Australia.
The main purpose of the essay is to manage the different complexities in the Australian organizations with implementation of different strategies. The importance of the occupational safety at the workplace is essential in nature as to improve the safety procedures in the organizations. Proper kind of analysis is required to be done wherein this will include the procedures that can be taken by employer to resolve the issues and maintain accurate workplace health and safety among the employees in different companies.
Workplace Health and Safety is often referred to as Occupational Health and Safety that includes assessment and involvement along with mitigation of the different kind of risks that may impact the safety, welfare along with health of the different individuals in the organizations in Australia. Furthermore, it has been seen that there are different kind of laws that differ in different Australian territories and states.
Furthermore, Xiang et al. (2014) has commented that management of the health safety and workplace is essential in nature in different kind of organizations in Australia as all the employees to prevent them from any kind of injury or illness. At regular kind of intervals, health and safety conditions of the workers has to be measured along with providing training to the employees in order to control the risks involved in it as well.
There are different articles wherein it has been seen that there is workplace violence that has been caused to the workers working in different organizations in Australia (Phillips et al. 2015). There has been different instances of bullying and discrimination among the workers because of the sex, age and religion of the individuals in the organizations. Proper legislative means for controlling bullying is required to be adopted by the employers in the organization to confront the bullying at the workplace. Furthermore, it is the crucial legal responsibility of the employers of the Australian organizations to provide safe kind of workplace to the employees who are employed under them (Ackermann et al. 2014).
Main Complexities in Australian Workplace
It is the entire responsibility of the employer to take care of the different kind of issues faced by employees and solve them appropriately. There can be issues related to discrimination caused to the employees and this is affecting the trust and they are losing their morale to perform the tasks. In different kind of Australian workplaces, it has been seen that there are issues related to improper work life balance in the workplace. Lastly, there are different kind of incidents that has been taken place in the organizations that has reduced the morale of employees and there are individuals who committed suicide and no measures are taken by companies to reduce such issues (Healy et al. 2016).
In this particular scenario, from different articles and journals it has been seen that there are many complexities in the workplace in Australia. The main complexity that has been found in the workplace is the bullying of the individuals along with discrimination among the employees as well (Terry et al. 2015). It has been noticed that only 13% of the organizations comply with the safe work Australia’s code of practice on first aid (SmartCompany, 2018). Furthermore, there has been different kind of other sexual harassment cases among the female employees in the organizations in which nine out of ten employees are victims of sexual harassment crimes.
These kinds of issues are the most crucial wherein the number of suicides are increasing in number and this is increasing the risks among the employees to work in different organizations in Australia as well (Shea et al. 2016). There is an article that has been released wherein it seen that Woolworths Supermarket based in Australia was ordered to pay $230,000 in the form of compensation to the injured worker after the four year long legal battle (SmartCompany, 2018). From this article, it has been seen that the employers in the organizations do not take any such responsibility of reducing the workplace issues and this is impacting the welfare of the employees in a negative manner as well.
The other article that has been released is relating to the employee sexual harassment in the organizations. It has been noticed that the survey that has been taken under the trade union United Voice, more than 86% of the female employees are left unsafe in their workplaces and this is creating unsafe environment for the workers who are female in the Australian workplace (The Conversation, 2018). From the article, it has been noticed that out of 300 workers in the hospitality industry, nine out of ten workers have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.
Ways to improve the occupational health and safety laws in Australian Companies
From such kind of scenarios, it can be analysed that there are different kind of workplace health and safety issues faced by the different workers ineffectively and the employers are not taking any proper responsibility to avoid such issues successfully as well. The different kind of issues in the workplace has been increasing in the present scenario at a rapid speed (Peel et al. 2016). Furthermore, it has been recorded that the female employees are not receiving any kind of huge support from the different employers of their respective organisations as well.
Due to such kind of issues in the workplaces in Australia, the productivity of the employees is decreasing and this is causing the employees to commit suicide among the workers due to such kind of issues in the health and safety conditions provided at the workplace. Lastly, the employers are not taking any necessary steps in managing the issues that are faced by the employees and this is affecting the morale of the employees as well.
The different employers of the organizations in Australia needs to understand the issues faced by the different organizations in an operative manner. Proper analysis is required to be done by different companies in Australia to improve the different kind of health and safety issues faced by the employees. The workplace health and safety are essential in nature in different organizations as this is one of the crucial legal requirements in the different companies (Arnetz et al. 2015).
It helps in maintaining long term success of the organizations that will assist the companies in Australia to retain the staffs, maximise the productivity of the employees and minimize the illness among the injury in the workplace. It is the duty of the employer in different companies to meet the legal obligations along with responsibilities of the employers as well in the organizations. The health and safety programs in companies are essential in preventing the injury along with illness in workplace. Proper enhancement of the different kind of strategies is required to be analysed by the employer in the Australian organizations to meet the different demands of the employees.
The programs of health and safety will help employees and employer to understand the potential kind of hazards on daily basis. The operative kind of health and safety programs involve the different workers in developing the policies and procedures related to WHS. In Australia, the different other authorities have responsibilities in enforcement of the WHS/OHS legislations. The pocket OHS helps the companies in adhering with the regulations of the Australian legislations rules and laws to understand the issues faced by them and solve them effectively.
Furthermore, the employers of the different companies need to take care of the different requirements of the female workers in the organization wherein the safety of the women or female employees are to be taken care of successfully (Thrasher et al. 2016). The managing of the individuals at work is required in all the organizations as this boosts the morale of the employees and solve the queries appropriately. Lastly, the compensation plans have to be adopted by the employer to manage the employees effectually with the help of the different labour and industrial relations.
The companies in Australia have to understand and analyse the issues in the workplace that are commonly faced by the employees. The employer needs to jot down the different difficulties of the employees and solve them in such a manner that this reduces the complexity in the organizations as well.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that effective workplace health and safety is essential in order to meet the different demands of the employees in the different Australian companies. It has been noticed that there are complexities in the WHS of Australian companies, however they are reduced with implementation of proper strategies and the companies are successful in retaining the employees in the organization as well. Finally, the companies and employers created cordial relationship with all employees and this reduced discrimination among employees as well.
References
Ackermann, B.J., Kenny, D.T., O’Brien, I. and Driscoll, T.R., 2014. Sound Practice—improving occupational health and safety for professional orchestral musicians in Australia. Frontiers in psychology, 5, p.973.
Arnetz, J.E., Hamblin, L., Ager, J., Luborsky, M., Upfal, M.J., Russell, J. and Essenmacher, L., 2015. Underreporting of workplace violence: Comparison of self-report and actual documentation of hospital incidents. Workplace health & safety, 63(5), pp.200-210.
Healy, G.N., Goode, A., Schultz, D., Lee, D., Leahy, B., Dunstan, D.W., Gilson, N.D. and Eakin, E.G., 2016. The BeUpstanding Program™: Scaling up the Stand Up Australia Workplace Intervention for Translation into Practice. AIMS public health, 3(2), p.341.
Peel, A.J., Field, H.E., Reid, P.A., Plowright, R.K., Broder, C.C., Skerratt, L.F., Hayman, D.T., Restif, O., Taylor, M., Martin, G. and Crameri, G., 2016. The equine Hendra virus vaccine remains a highly effective preventative measure against infection in horses and humans:‘The imperative to develop a human vaccine for the Hendra virus in Australia’. Infection ecology & epidemiology, 6(1), p.31658.
Phillips, J.A., Holland, M.G., Baldwin, D.D., Gifford-Meuleveld, L., Mueller, K.L., Perkison, B., Upfal, M. and Dreger, M., 2015. Marijuana in the workplace: Guidance for occupational health professionals and employers: Joint guidance statement of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Workplace health & safety, 63(4), pp.139-164.
Shea, T., De Cieri, H., Donohue, R., Cooper, B. and Sheehan, C., 2016. Leading indicators of occupational health and safety: An employee and workplace level validation study. Safety science, 85, pp.293-304.
SmartCompany. (2018). Report shows 89% of hospitality workers experience sexual harassment: How can your business help prevent it? – SmartCompany. [online] Available at: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/people-human-resources/workplace-health-safety/report-shows-89-of-hospitality-workers-experience-sexual-harassment-how-can-you-help-prevent-it/ [Accessed 2 May 2018].
SmartCompany. (2018). Woolworths ordered to pay injured worker 0,000 in compensation after four-year long legal battle – SmartCompany. [online] Available at: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/business-advice/legal/woolworths-ordered-to-pay-injured-worker-230000-in-compensation-after-four-year-long-legal-battle/ [Accessed 2 May 2018].
Terry, D., Lê, Q., Nguyen, U. and Hoang, H., 2015. Workplace health and safety issues among community nurses: a study regarding the impact on providing care to rural consumers. BMJ open, 5(8), p.e008306.
The Conversation. (2018). Australia’s occupational health and safety regime needs first aid. [online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/australias-occupational-health-and-safety-regime-needs-first-aid-12794 [Accessed 2 May 2018].
Thrasher, A.D., Wells, A.M., Spencer, S.M., Cofie, L. and Yen, I.H., 2016. Workplace Discrimination Is Associated With Alcohol Abuse Among Ethnically Diverse Hospital Staff. Workplace health & safety, 64(5), pp.202-209.
Xiang, J., Bi, P., Pisaniello, D. and Hansen, A., 2014. The impact of heatwaves on workers? health and safety in Adelaide, South Australia. Environmental research, 133, pp.90-95.
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