Case Study On Safe Workplace for Wellbeing of Employee

Question: Describe about the Ensure a Safe Workplace for Wellbeing of Employee. Answer: Rationale for nationally harmonized work health and safety laws The prime objective for the harmonization WHS policy is to set all the health related legislations set within a timeframe. This timeframe also comprises of the model regulations, National Compliance and Enforcement Policy and model Codes of Practice ("Council of Australian Governments COAG", 2016). Importance of health and safety legislation The prime objective of managing health and safety regulation is to the wellbeing of employee, visitors and customers from any hazardous circumstance in the workplace. Another importance is that the employee can get compensation for the adversity to overcome the trauma. Purpose of health and safety regulation The purpose of health and safety regulation is implemented to set out the duties in themodel WHS Act so that employee of an organization can get enough compensation from the hazards like- dangerous machinery, electricity, toxic substances, loads, which have to be manually handled and from psychological hazards also like stress and strain ("Risk assessment - Safe Work Australia", 2016). Purpose of code of practice Code of practice is termed as written legislations by an organization to set guidelines for employees. The primary objective is to explain a professional approach to behave in the workplace so that adverse situation can be avoided ("Model Codes of Practice," 2016). Names of codes of practice models endorsed by Safe Work Australia Safely Removal of Asbestos Demolition Code of Practice Managing Electrical Risks in the Workplace Managing the Risk of fall at Workplaces Safe Design of Structures Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Management of risks in health and safety in hazardous manual tasks The risk can be managed by identifying foreseeable hazards that can create risk in future and then take appropriate step to overcoming it. In addition to that, if the risk cannot eliminate it can be reduced in accordance with the hierarchy of control, the implemented control measure has to be maintained and it is regularly monitored for developing a working environment that is without risks to health and safety. Exemplification of two issues High force- Lowering, lifting, or carrying a heavy object that cannot be positioned close to the body. Sudden force- Cutting reinforcement steel with large bolt cutters and carrying an unbalanced load like bagged stock feed pellets that suddenly move ("WorkSafe", 2016) Duty holder in WHS Act Duty holders are the administrative persons who are responsible for ensuring the safety of an employee in the workplace by eliminating the probability of health and safety risks. This can be well defined through the primary duty of care of PCBU. Primary duty of care of PCBU PCBU should provide a safe work environment in factories and maintain safe plant and structures ("PCBU_Afei", 2016). They should also provide a safe system of work and ensure proper usage of storage of plant, structures and substances. One of the important duties is to provide training to the employees to avoid and control risk and then supervise their performance under the hazardous situation. Lastly, they are also responsible for monitoring the health of workers. Work Health and Safety (WHS) responsibilities of workers The employees of an organization have to take care of the safety measure during work that can severely affect their health. They should also follow the legislation formulated by PCBU to gather knowledge what may affect their health and its related consequences. In addition to that, they should also proactively involvein the health and safety programs. They can also refuse some working procedure that affects their health adversely. Underhill (2013) also portray that employee should report their manager about injuries and illness that occurred in the workplace. Identification of the hazards Employee can relate the hazardous activity with the manufacturers' instructionsor data sheetsfor getting the knowledge whether it is a risk or not. Visit the PCBUs Website for the practical guidance on hazards to ensure about the evolved hazards. 10.3 Considering all the non-routine operations like cleaning operations and maintenance and long-term hazards to healtheffects like exposure to harmful chemicals and high levels of noise Risk assessment in workplace health and safety Roberts et al. (2015) define that risk assessment is a systematic procedure to identify hazards and evaluating the associated risk and then implementing some, appropriate ways that can be used to eliminate the hazard. Risk control in workplace health and safety Some unavoidable situations result in hazardous circumstance, in such circumstance the measure is taken to avoid or reduce the adversity is referred as risk control. These measures are supported but the PSVBU's legislation in the Australian workplace. Hierarchy of control Risk can be controlled by following a risk hierarchy. The level one is for taking control measures as eliminating risk is easier than to resolve the occurred risk. Level two is to substitute the hazard with something safer and reduce the risk trough effective engineering controls. Lastly, the level three is to follow the administrative actions and legislation to reduce exposure to the hazard. Figure 1: Risk Control Hierarchy (Source: "WorkSafe", 2016) Reason for reporting WHS incidents The Incident Reporting is required for letting the managing authority know about the adverse situation occurred in the workplace so that effective measures can be taken for the victim. Notifiable incidents One of the notifiable incidents is- the sudden death of an employee due to fire or explosion in the workplace. Duration of keeping record of each notifiable incident by an employer The record for each notifiable incident can be taken for five years from the issue date of notification ("WHS incident notification", 2016). Penalties can be charged for failing to do so. Informing about workplace injury to workers compensation insurer The employee of the workplace must have to report the incident of a workplace injury to their governing authorities within 48 hours ("Reporting Incident", 2016). However, it is also mentioned in the WHS policy that they must provide first aid treatment to the victim, record the details in the register of injuries, and then inform the managing authorities of the organization or to hospitals. Reference List Intergovernmental Agreement for Regulatory and Operational Reform in Occupational Health and Safety | Council of Australian Governments (COAG)., 2016.Coag.gov.au. Retrieved 9 September 2016, from https://www.coag.gov.au/node/276 Model Codes of Practice., 2016.Safeworkaustralia.gov.au. Retrieved 9 September 2016, from https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/model-whs-laws/model-cop/pages/model-cop PCBU_Afei., 2016.Afei.org.au. Retrieved 9 September 2016, from https://www.afei.org.au/node/96372 Reporting Incident. (2016).Notifying and recording an incident or injury. Retrieved 9 September 2016, from https://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/workers-compensation-claims/report-an-incident-or-injury/notifying-and-recording-an-incident-or-injury Risk assessment - Safe Work Australia. (2016).Safeworkaustralia.gov.au. Retrieved 9 September 2016, from https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/whs-information/hazardous-chemicals/printers/howtousethispackage/pages/step2riskassessment Roberts, M. H., Sim, M. R., Black, O., Smith, P. (2015). Occupational injury risk among ambulance officers and paramedics compared with other healthcare workers in Victoria, Australia: analysis of workers compensation claims from 2003 to 2012.Occupational and environmental medicine, oemed-2014. Underhill, E., 2013. The challenge to workplace health and safety and the changing nature of work and the workplace environment.Australian workplace relations, 191-208. WHS incident notification., 2016.SafeWork NSW. Retrieved 9 September 2016, from https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/media/publications/health-and-safety/whs-incident-notification-fact-sheet WorkSafe., 2016.www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/. Retrieved 9 September 2016, from https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/58166/hazardous-manual-tasks-cop-2011.pdf