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1.Discuss about the Workplace Health and Safety Act in the context of a retail store in Australia and the kitchen.
2.In this task, you will be using a virtual risk management tool website from Australian Government COMCARE.
3.Provide a brief description of the relevant WHS Acts, regulations, and codes of practice, standardsfollowed at your workplace?
4.Who are a PCBU and the duty of a PCBU under new Work, Health and Safety rules?How PCBUs (Person Conducting Business or Undertakings)different from an Employer?
1.The WHS Act 2012(SA) was enacted to protect the wellbeing and safety of the workers at the workplace. Hence in this report, the various aspects of the applicability of the Act on retail stores in Australia in Part A and to a kitchen in Part B shall be discussed.
The WHS Act 2012(SA) shall be applied to the retail store which is situated in South Australia. The store has a big hall at its entrance with two fire extinguishers installed at both the sides. It has a lunchroom , cabin of the manager, storeroom, conference hall and washrooms which are adjoining the hall. It also has an exit gate at the back side in case of emergency exit. The fire extinguishers are also installed at the exit gate. There are about ten six to seven employees working at the store.
Certain policies and procedures have been enacted for the implementation of workplace health and safety on the store. The Manager has the duty to ensure that training should be provided to personnel for the handling of heavy loads through trolleys and trays. The walkways should be kept cleared to avoid manual handling. The floors and access routes should be kept clear. The waste should not be built up. The poor lighting, uneven walkways and trailing cables shall be reported to the management. Provisions have also been made for cuts, falling objects and fall from a height.
As per Australian Government: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2012) provisions are made for the team members to access the WHS policy and processes in the store. The safety manuals can be accessed by contacting the OHS Unit and going through the Minutes of the OHS Committee and Workplace Advisory Committee. The OHS internet and intranet site can also be accessed for obtaining the information of the WHS policy.
The WHS Act 2012(SA) has widened the duty of care for the PCBUs, other people and officers who have the responsibility for contributing to the successful management of the hazards arising in the workplace. The persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) have the duties to administer the risks arising on the premises. The officer participates in making decisions relating to exercising due diligence to ensure that the work complies with the relevant laws. The workers have a duty of care towards their own safety and the safety of others.
The Code of Practice guides practically about the compliance of the legal obligations. The Code of practice operational in South Australia pertain to hazardous manual tasks, first aid in the workplace, labeling of workplace hazardous chemicals, managing electrical risks in the workplace, management of noise and prevention of hearing loss at workplace etc.
The team should also be provided information regarding the risk control procedures and recognition of hazards. There are five steps viz. identification of hazards, assessment of risks pertaining to the identification of consequences, likelihood and the rate of inherent risks. The third steps refer to controlling of risks followed by implementing the control measures to mitigate it. The risk procedures should then be monitored and reviewed and the treatment plan should be developed for corrective measures as required. It has also implemented the policy related to the identification, assessment and reporting of the potential hazards (Pillay, 2013).
The team members should be provided the opportunities for consulting and contributing to OHS/WHS issues by discussing the issues with store manager through meetings, newsletters, emails and conference calls. They must discuss the health and safety policies and procedures and provide and receiving technical guidance about the probable risks and control measures in the store.
The issues related to risks posed to the personnel of the store can be resolved by contacting the immediate supervisor who can order to halt the work along with the investigating the issue. In case of disagreement between the supervisor and his unavailability, the health and safety representative can instruct the workers to stop working. He should further inform the store manager about the issue who can execute the pending investigation (Flinders University, 2018).
They must also participate in the consultation process and convey the outcomes of the issues raised on the WHS matters to the team. The HSR and supervisors have the accountability to provide feedback on control safety measures issued. The cooperation and commitments of the employees are increased as they have the ownership in the development and implementation program of the WHS (Business. gov.au, 2018).
In this context, all the managers and supervisors should ensure that the WHS policy is completely implemented in the store and the workers are being consulted as a part of the processes of identification of hazards, assessing their risks and their control processes. It becomes the responsibility of the workers to cooperate and abide by with the policy. It comprises providing efficient information and feedback which will support the risk management procedures (Barrett, Mayson and Bahn, 2014).
The implementation of the control measures in the store can be: Firstly, the hazards can be substituted by a safer material which would minimize it. The hazard can also be isolated or separated from the staff like the chemicals which are used for washing can be kept in a locked room with limited access. The engineering controls can be used for mitigating the hazards by installing guard rails on the staircases and using trolleys for lifting heavy goods.
Regarding the monitoring of the performance of the team for handling the manual tasks, it must be ensured that they are lifting and carrying the load by using trolleys.The size and shape of the object and its height and the ease through which it is carried is also to be considered while surveillance. The stability of the load, available space, suitability of the person and frequency of lifting are other factors which must be considered while monitoring the safe manual handling techniques at the store (Bong et al., 2015).
The store emergency policy and procedures must be implemented to deal with the cases of emergency. Emergency procedures regarding the alarm systems, firefighting equipment, transport arrangements for sick and injured persons, first aid provisions and the contamination of products should be installed in the store (Archer et al., 2012).
The employees should be trained regarding the use of first aid, safety representative training, training for the forklift drivers, manual handling, entry in the confined spaces, handling of hazardous substances etc. It was identified that the store employees were not trained properly regarding the same (Graves and Zheng, 2014).
The training should be organized and arranged according to the policy of the store. It pertains to designing a training matrix recognizing the skills required by the employees according to their job positions. The job safety analysis comprising of training and competency for each task and specific hazard risk assessment and WHS audit is also required to assess the training needs of the store.
The recordkeeping requirements should be complied with in respect to occupational injury and disease. It pertains to airborne contamination levels according to section 50(2), confined spaces according to section 66(3), hazardous chemicals according to section 359, high-risk work according to section 85(4) , electrical equipment according to section 150 (3), 150(4) and major hazardous tasks according to 544 of the OHS Act.
Conclusion
Hence, to conclude, it can be said that the implementation of the above-mentioned policies is necessary for ensuring the workplace health and safety of the store. It should be monitored that the employees have executed the responsibilities set out for them in this regard and they have been involved in the decision making process .
2.The hazards posed at the reception area are physical assault, psychological injury and musculoskeletal disorders (Miller, 2015). The hazard of physical assault and psychological injury can be caused by access to the workers at the reception with ill intent. The musculoskeletal disorders can be caused by the poor ergonomic setup of the work area. These can mitigate by establishing emergency response procedures and pressing the duress call button in case of physical assault by the consumers. The work area should be arranged in such a way which suits the needs (i.e. height adjustable chairs and desk, monitor arms ) of the workers (Eldejany, 2018).
3.The WHS Act, codes of practice and other legislation applied in the hospitality industry are provided by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). They provide an obligation on the food business of Australia that they produce safe and healthy food for the consumers to eat. The standards contain rules of health and hygiene for food handlers and aim to reduce the evidence of food poisoning.
The code of practice applicable to the hospitality industry are related to maintenance of first aid at the workplace, hazardous manual tasks, management of work health and safety and electrical risks at the workplace. The code of practices related to managing noise and prevention of hearing loss, managing the work environment and amenities in the food industry and consultation related to work health and safety are relevant in the food industry (Business Queensland, 2018).
4.PCBU (Person Conducting a business or undertaking) are persons managing or controlling the workplace. Their duty is to remove or minimize the risks related to health and safety at the workplace and must ensure the safety of the personnel working in the workplace.
Under the newly applied legislation on Work Health & Safety Act, the PCBUs are different from employers. A person can be PCBU even if he is not an employer. Thus a PCBU comprises of employers, sole traders, unincorporated bodies, associations, partnerships and volunteer organizations with workers employed in it (Ryan,2012).
References
Archer, R.J., Borthwick, K., Travers, M. and Ruschena, L.(2012) Whs: A Management Guide. China: Cengage Learning.pp. 1-100.
Australian Government : Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations(2012) Maintain store safety [online] Available from: https://training.gov.au/TrainingComponentFiles/SIR07/SIRXOHS002A_R1.pdf [Accessed 25th July, 2018].
Barrett, R., Mayson, S. and Bahn, S.(2014) Small firms and health and safety harmonisation: Potential regulatory effects of a dominant narrative. Journal of Industrial Relations.56(1), pp.62-80.
Bong, S., Rameezdeen, R., Zuo, J., Li, R.Y.M. and Ye, G.(2015) The designer’s role in workplace health and safety in the construction industry: post-harmonized regulations in South Australia. International Journal of Construction Management. 15(4), pp.276-287.
Business Queensland (2018) Food and beverage industry regulations and compliance [online] Available from: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/industries/hospitality-tourism-sport/food/food-beverage/regulations [Accessed 25th July, 2018].
Business. gov.au.(2018) WHS/OH&S acts, regulations and codes of practice [online] Available from: https://www.business.gov.au/info/run/workplace-health-and-safety/whs-oh-and-s-acts-regulations-and-codes-of-practice [Accessed 26th July, 2018].
Eldejany, R.(2018) Work Health and Safety in Small Business-A Pilot Study in the Australian Construction Industry. International Journal of Business Administration. 9(4), p.103.
Flinders University (2018) Reporting a hazard and solving general WHS issues Maintain store safety [online] Available from: https://www.flinders.edu.au/whs/hazard-management/hazard-report-form.cfm [Accessed 25th July, 2018].
Graves, N. and Zheng, H.(2014) Modeling the direct health care costs of chronic wounds in Australia. Wound Practice & Research: Journal of the Australian Wound Management Association. 22(1), p.20.
Miller, P.( 2015) Is the risk management model and hierarchy of control relevant for psychosocial risks?. In Proceedings 19th Triennial Congress of the IEA .9 ,p.14.
Pillay, M.(2013) Harmonisation of Construction Health and Safety Laws in Australia [online] Available from: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1396&context=ecuworks2013 [Accessed 26th July, 2018].
Ryan, P.( 2012) How the model WHS laws will affect you. MHD Supply Chain Solutions. 42(1), p.38.
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