6.2.3 Occupational health and safety legislation in the workplace
The laws relating to providing and maintaining a safe workplace are contained in Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) legislation. Each state and territory has its own Occupational Health and Safety legislation that is designed to provide a set of limits or minimum standards for safe work practices.
Organisational policies and procedures relating to health and safety should be based on the appropriate legislation that is applicable to the workplace. It is important for all employees to be conversant with workplace policies and procedures and be able to communicate those policies to team members. Team members should also have access to the appropriate store of policies and procedures so that they can implement them in an effective manner.
Duty of Care
Principal occupational health and safety Acts in the States and Territories contain obligations to exercise a 'duty of care' in relation to health and safety in the workplace. Duty of care ensures that the moral duty to anticipate possible causes of injury and illness, and to do everything reasonably practicable to remove or minimize these possible causes of harm, is legally enforceable.
The OH&S Acts require that certain duties are complied with so far as 'reasonably practicable'. This allows the duty holder to choose the most efficient means of controlling risk from a range of possibilities. The duty holder must show that it was not reasonably practicable to do more than what was done and that they had taken reasonable precautions.
A number of factors are taken into account to determine what would be reasonable and practicable. These factors include the:
- Nature and severity of the hazard;
- Knowledge of the severity of the hazard;
- Knowledge of solution;
- Viability of solutions;
- Common standards of practice;
- Cost of solutions.
- Codes of practice are an example of "common standards of practice" that could be used in court to illustrate what the employer should have been doing in order to prevent or control a hazard.
In short, employers, manufacturers, designers, suppliers, persons in control of workplaces and persons who install plant and equipment must ensure:
Safe people
which includes providing them with suitable information, communication channels, protective clothing and personal equipment, training and supervision.
Safe systems of work
which includes work practices, ways of working, processes, standard operating procedures and administrative procedures.
Safe property
which includes premises with maintenance of work area, machinery and equipment, safe access and exits, safe plant and equipment, materials, and substances.
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