Role of WHS Authority
1. Explain the role of the WHS Authority in your State/Territory in relation to promotion and enforcement of health and safety in the State/territory.
In my area, the role of the WHS authority is to provide information and advice to the WHS duty holders, gather statistical data, analyze and publish the same to ensure that the organizations are maintaining work, health and safety (Chan et al. 2022). Furthermore, the WHS authority ensures to promote the coordination among duty holders, WHS representative and consultants to ensure the smooth functioning of the organization. The WHS authority also has the responsibility to train, guide and support the WHS workers and representatives. The authority has to ensure that the regulators of WHS are setting strategic priorities, both at national and local levels.
2. Provide an example of the rights and responsibilities of PCBU’s (Persons Conducting a Business) according to WHS legislation. Provide an example of the rights and responsibilities of workers according to the WHS legislation. Provide an outline of each of their duty of care in relation to WHS legislation.
|
(PCBUs) |
Officers |
Workers |
|
|
Responsibilities |
· Monitoring workplace · Training, supervising and instructing · Maintaining safety in storage and handling of substances |
· To ensure that the PCBUs are complying with the duty of care · To ensure that the PCBUs use appropriate health resources to minimize risks to health · Ensure the PCBUs take adequate steps to ensure safety at workplace |
· Take responsibilities for own health · Comply with safety instructions at workplace |
|
Duty of care |
· Assess risks of harm · Develop measures to reduce harm · Evaluate risk management plan |
· Ensure that the PCBUs assess risks and report them and manage accidents |
· Take the responsibilities of the safety of other workers · Ensure to report risks |
3. What is meant by the term “due diligence” and “general duty “in the WHS context.
|
Due diligence |
Due diligence refers to the ethical and legal obligations of every worker to assess the risks and hazards operating in the workplace and ensure to take reasonable, and adequate steps to reduce the risk caused by the harm or remove the risk (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004). |
|
General duty |
The general duty refers to the assigned roles, responsibilities of a worker, officer or a PCBU. It also includes the areas that these individuals are accountable to the organization, for instance, the job role is a general duty of the worker (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004). |
4. List two different regulatory requirements relevant to the community service sector related to WHS.
In community service sector, the two different relevant regulatory requirements are as follows:
The duty holders in the community service sectors should be provided with the advice and information about the importance of health and safety in the workplace under the provision of Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004).
The regulators must also train and educate the duty holders about techniques to promote and engage in health promoting actions, report and reduce risks of harm.
5. With reference to the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, identify the section that deals with the way in which employees must be consulted in relation to WHS issues in the workplace, and explain the purpose of consultation.
To consult an employee, the relevant information about the consultation should be shared with the employee. Secondly, the employee should be given the opportunity to express their expert views on the issues related to health and safety in the workplace, actively participate in the decision-making process, their views should be incorporated in the safety plan and the outcomes of the consultation should be advised to the employee.
The purpose of this consultation is to understand and incorporate the subjective experience of the workers in the workplace regarding the safety and health issues. The consultation helps the organization resolve the employee’s work health and safety issues, monitor their health and provide training to workers to address the safety and health issues.
6. List two different hazardous manual tasks that you may encounter within the community services workplace and describe one strategy for minimising the risks in each case.
|
Hazardous manual task |
Strategy for minimisation of risk |
|
Sudden or high force required in lifting heavy objects |
· The heavy objects can be substituted with smaller and lighter objects · Mechanical lifting aids can be used to reduce chances of muscle strain |
|
Remaining in a sustained awkward position |
· Replace the awkward position with a position that promotes health. Use of instrument and equipment to correct the awkward position. |
7. Explain in your own words the purpose of the following policies and procedures as they relate to WHS legal requirements.
Rights and responsibilities of PCBUs and workers
|
Procedures and policies |
|
|
Hazard reporting procedures |
The purpose of hazard reporting procedure is to ensure that the adverse impacts of a foreseeable hazard is prevented and health and safety of the workers are protected in case a hazard has already taken place. Hazards reporting ensure that the same hazards do not cause harm to the employees in the future. |
|
Incident reporting procedures |
Incident of risks and harms should be reported immediately after an event so that the negative impacts of the event are well-managed. Reporting procedures help reduce the impacts of the incident. |
|
Injury reporting procedures |
The purpose of injury reporting procedure is to determine a pattern in the manner in which injuries occur and why they occur so that the issues can be resolved and harm can be reduced in the future. |
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Hazard identification procedures |
The purpose is to determine a pattern in the hazards prevalent in the workplace and devise measures to reduce the risks of harm possessed by the hazards to the workers (Dosman et al., 2015). |
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Risk assessment and control procedures |
The purpose is to assess the prevalent risks in the workplace environment and use various methods like elimination, administration, substitution, use of PPE to reduce them (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004). |
|
Human resources policies |
Purpose is to ensure that the needs, complaints and benefits of each employee in the company is looked after by the organization. The human resource policy ensures that the stakeholders of the company are working in accordance with the national WHS policy and legislation. |
8. Imagine that one of your work colleagues has injured their back while assisting a client move from their bed to a wheelchair. She has submitted an incident report. What steps should your manager take when he receives the incident report and why?
When the manager receives the incident report by call or by written document, the manager should immediately assess the extent of the harm causes by the incident and ensure that first aid is provided to the employee (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004). If the harm caused is major and serious, an ambulance will be called so that the employee can be taken to the hospital. If required, the site of incident will be preserved for a proper analysis of the incident. The feedback about how the incident occurred will be collected from the employee to identify preventable steps that can be taken in order to prevent similar incidents in the future. The manager needs to report the incident to designated person according to the workplace policy and guidelines.
9. Explain the role of a designated WHS person and provide an example of an issue you might raise with this person.
The role of the WHS person is majorly three dimensional – to follow, implement and contribute to safe work practices in the workplace. The role of the WHS person is to follow the workplace safety and identify existing hazards, record and report them according to workplace procedures, and follow the emergency guidelines of the workplace (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004). The WHS person also has the responsibility to identify and report incidents and injuries, take actions to maintain safe workplace and contribute meaningfully to the development of safe workplace policies (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004).
An example of an issue I might raise with this person is when I notice a possible hazard that can cause risk of harm, like an exposed wire on the floor that might cause electrocution or an exposed garbage can.
10. Provide one example of an employee support service that may be available to support workers with WHS issues in the workplace.
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a service that provides assistance and support to workers working in the workplace with WHS issues. This program provides a diverse range of services like therapeutic interventions, life coaching, development of skills to escalate and manage risks, report risks and ensure that mental health issues in workplace is easily handled. Furthermore, this program teaches mediation techniques like dispute resolution to reduce interpersonal conflicts in workplace. Interpersonal conflicts in workplace can lead to hampered mental health. This service additionally provides training on professional development and organizational capacity building to ensure that the risks at workplace are better identified and critical incidents are responded to in a timely manner.
11. Explain which PPE should be used in each of the following circumstances:
|
Circumstance |
PPE |
|
Need to clean up vomit from the floor |
· Two pairs of single use gloves (waterproof and abrasion resistant gloves) · 1 face mask · One disposable plastic apron (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004) |
|
Talk to a client who is under quarantine because they have been diagnosed with the flu |
· Disposable coveralls with a hood · 1 surgical mask · Face shield |
|
Cooking meals |
· Disposable plastic apron (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004) · Slip resistant mats · Anti-slip shoes · Oven mitts · Hairnet · Oven gloves and dishwashing gloves · Face mask |
12. Explain what is meant by the concept “safe design” and provide one example.
|
Safe design |
Safe design is a process of integrating hazard identification and assessment of risk which helps the organizational administration devise a workplace design that assists in the elimination of the risk of injury in the life of the infrastructure being designed to minimize harm. Safe design is a risk minimizing technique that is used in the earlier stages of harm reduction procedure (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004). |
|
Example |
Example of save design is the use of signposting for construction sites to guide workers through a safer way to reach a target destination by avoiding hazardous construction sites. |
13. Imagine that there is a portable shallow swimming pool used during the summer time to help clients with disabilities cool off. Identify one potential hazard associated with use of this pool, list the levels of the hierarchy of controls in their correct order and provide an example of the control measure you could apply at each level in relation to the hazard you have identified.
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Potential hazard |
|
|
The potential hazard associated with shallow pool is the inability of the swimmer to recognize the uneven depth of the pool and hence meet with accidents by bumping into the floor of the swimming pool. |
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Hierarchy of control |
Example of measures |
|
Engineering control |
Engineering control measure will include including adequate signposting of uneven depths of shallow pool. A sign of “shallow waters ahead. Be careful” can warn the swimmers of the shallowness (Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004). |
|
Administrative control |
Provide barriers around the shallow part of the pool so that the swimmers do not cross the shallow side of the pool. |
References:
Chan, X.W., Kalliath, P., Fan, S.X. and Kalliath, T., 2022. Examining work–home segmentation as a coping strategy for frontline workers: a mixed method study of social workers across Australia. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp.1-23.
Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. No. 107 of 2004.
Dosman, J., Hagel, L., King, N., Koehncke, N., Kirychuk, S., Trask, C., Neudorf, J., Day, L., Voaklander, D., Pickett, W. and Saskatchewan Farm Injury Cohort Study Team, 2015. The hierarchy of control in the epidemic of farm injury. Journal of agromedicine, 20(3), pp.360-369.
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