Importance Of Work Health And Safety (WHS) Policy In Restaurant Industry

Formulation of WHS regulations

Question:

Describe about the “Project Roster Hospitality”.
 

The importance of the safety, health and welfare in the workplace is crucial as it signifies the practices that an organization adopts for ensuring their safety, health and well-being while working in the organization. In restaurant, the new employee must have known these WHS facts that must resemble the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Schofield et al. 2014):

• Ability to control hazard and know the emergency procedure
• Ability to handle all the kitchen appliances safely like cutting machines, deep fat fryers, passing machines, ironing presses and workstations.
• The WHS policy must also make the employee aware of the fact that smoking is ban in the restaurants
• The misuse of the safety equipment is strictly prohibited and should be used when required
• The employee must raise concern whenever the person noticed something wrong around the workplace.
• The new employee should actively respond to all adverse incidents and ensure that injured employees are safe to get back to work safely through equitable claims management and rehabilitation practices.

Hadley and Tyquin (2014) depicted that the existing systems need to be updated in accordance with the evolving requirement of the organizations by introducing new equipment, products and their handling procedures. During formulation of any new WHS information, the managing authorities must host a regular meeting in the initial stage so that every employee get knowledgeable about the new information in the upcoming time. Conducting meeting will enable the supervisors to detect the existing drawbacks of the current policies and hence helps them to formulate an effective WHS regulation. Furthermore, Bailey et al. (2015) mentions that proper training must have to be provided to these new employees so that they can serve their best to maintain the work and health policy within the organization efficiently. Preparing a checklist will be beneficial that ensures the successful implementation of the new WHS system along with the general responsibilities of the employees managing authorities.

Every workplace has some issue regarding the WHS policy for the safety of the workers. In the restaurant, there may be a situation when the workers lift the heavy drum filled with food materials manually that may lead them to joint pain and other body problems (Sinclair 2014). Moreover, Galvin (2016) illustrate that workers in the restaurants sometimes work longer than the estimated office hours either for festive seasons or extra workload. Both of these factors are against of the Work, Health and Safety policy of the concerned organization.

In the former case, implementation of new technology for lifting heavy drums should have to be incorporated in the organization (MacEachen and Kosny 2016). Proceeding in this way, the employees may not hurt their body parts and the floor of the hotel also not damaged along with the hotel environment is free from any noise. However, for the latter case, Cremers (2015) depicted that work can be equally divided among all the team members, if required more employees can be recruited for working in different shifts so that no worker can work more than the office hours.

According to Haas and Yorio (2016), it is the responsibility of the organization to get feedback from their employees as they are facing and utilizing the WHS policies directly and implements them in the workplace. The feedback must be provided to the supervisor, who is responsible for the introducing new health and safety regulations. Dyreborg et al. (2015) portray that the feedback comprises of the safety policies concerning the work environment and the quality of the available machines. This procedure also encompasses the general view of the employee towards the work design and existing systems and processes. Mayer et al. (2015) demonstrate that the safety measures also consider the organizational behavior an employee got from other colleagues. Whether these employees are facing any violence or are bullied by any office member. Another crucial consequence is the initiatives taken by the restaurants for the safety of the environment like the waste management system so that they can get the exact view of the employee that the business is preceding ethically (Pope et al. 2015). The feedback enables them to get an opinion regarding managing the bio-degradable waste for useful work like the formulation of natural gas by decomposing them and using the byproducts as fertilizer.

Employee training

a. The observed hazard

The main issues with that are noticed mainly in the restaurants is the manual handling of the heavy drums that result in the health issues in the worker and the poor management of the kitchen that increase the risk of the fire in the restaurants (Goetsch 2013).

b. Noticeable place of the occurred hazard

The former hazard can be easily noticeable among the workers as any of them often take sick leave due to back pain. The rate of taking leave is increasing and hence, this factor must have to be taken seriously by the organization.

c. Action after noticing the hazard

Primarily, in order to handle the situation, Reese (2015) mentions that the person who is noticing must help the person with their difficulty and afterward should report the higher authorities about this concern or suggest appropriate ideology to mitigate the adversity.

d. Risk control measures for the hazard

However, these risks can be diminished by incorporating new technologies for lifting heavy drums like trolleys or pulleys and use automatic technology devices for handling the kitchen procedures to maintain the proper timing of the oven (Hou et al. 2013). Exampling a scenario, the imposition of developed technology will alert the workers regarding the end time of the oven so that proper timing can be maintained that reduces the risk of fire due to negligence. Moreover, fire extinguisher and proper water supply must have to be managed and analyzed regularly.

e. Referring the evolved issues

All these safety measures must have to be related to the security supervision of the restaurants. Moreover, those supervisors should consult with higher authorities for implementing further security measures so that the workers can work without getting affected by any adverse circumstances. 

a. Training provided to the staffs

The front of house staffs must be aware of the information reacted to WHS policy and education and training in the same context according to the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. They must know all these knowledge so that they can make other aware of this and can take appropriate steps for mitigating the adversity. Smith and Lee (2015) depicted that the employees must provide the training for of handling the sharp knives and how to work collaboratively with their team members. The training should also comprise of the general action after occurrence of any hazard is important.

b. Occurrence of the training

According to the considered legislation, these training must have to be done initially for five days for every employee. Broadfoot et al. (2015) depicted that they also have to participate in an annual one-day refresher course where they have to implement their knowledge for safety measures of the organizations as well as the customer.

c. Monitoring the effectiveness of this training

Effective measures have to be done for monitoring the training of the WHS policies for the employees. Seim et al. (2014) depicted that scheduled hazard identification activities should regularly be conducted for identifying adverse times designated by legislation. The monitoring process must have collaborated with safe work practices. Hughes and Ferrett (2015) illustrate that the regular meeting of the board members to analyze the improvement of the restaurant and the rate of the health issues occurring in the organization is also a crucial part of the monitoring procedure. 

Use of technology

d. Measures were taken if training is not seen to be effective

If training is not seemed to be effective, the proper reward system should be added in the existing approach. Proceeding in this way, they can feel encouraged to follow the regulations regarding the staff security and systems. However, Bahn and Kitching (2013) mentions that primarily the managing authorities must have to conduct a session for re-evaluating the health and safety measures and their positive consequence. Furthermore, an approach to paid training procedure can also be implemented in the workplace for motivate the employee to attend the training session and attain the knowledge regarding the WHS policy.

Hazard Report Form 1 “Brief description of Hazard/Health and Safety issue: (Include details, if any, of immediate action taken to ensure the safety of persons who may be affected.)”

The employee of the restaurant faces many health issues like knee pain and back pain that make them unable to work for long due to lifting heavy barrels and transferring objects by regularly bending up and down. As a consequence, there is an increase in the number of taking sick leave that affects the productivity and profitability of the concerned organization.

Sometimes the fire security systems are outdated and are not used properly at the time of requirement. Even the kitchen appliances like the ovens and stoves also have to be checked regularly and maintained as many workers get affected by fires by sparks from these appliances.

Working for extra hours is also a major issue in the organization. These situations often noticed in the restaurants in the festive season and sometimes in general times. This lead to the tiredness in the employee that affect their health.

2. “Where is the hazard located in the workplace?”

The hazard is mainly recognized in the godown and the kitchen area where the raw materials are stored for the restaurants. In kitchen areas, some products are lying on the ground that is transferred to the upper racks of the kitchen manually that needs a continuous effort of a person to bend up and down which leads to the occurrence of the back pain.

Furthermore, in the godown area, all the dried materials like spices and other stuff also need a work force to lift it manually. The fire incident is observed mainly in the kitchen area where the food items are prepared with the help of the electricity and fire.

3.”Recommended action to fix hazard/issue.”

The recommendation for this is to use trolleys wherever applicable and provided to every worker so that they can use them in required times.

In godown, big trolley and lifting trucks must have to be incorporated so that the workers do not have to lift these drums and barrels manually.

The fire issue can be resolved by maintaining fire extinguishers and proper availability of the water and sand in the kitchen that can be used in case of the restaurant will catch fire

The working of the extra hours can be handled by a proper division of the task among the team members or by recruiting additional employees for another shift to handle extra work during the festive seasons to reduce the work pressure of the employee.

Furthermore, a regular training session has to be provided to them so that the employee can use them with proper knowledge and without creating any harm to the restaurant.

4. “Reported to Workplace Health and Safety Representative (WHSR)”

Yes, the considered hazard is reported to the Workplace Health and Safety Representative for taking further steps for the betterment of the WHS policy so that the worker can work in the restaurant safety, serves their best to the customers, who enhance the organization’s performance, and signifies the better productivity and profitability.

5. “Has the hazard/issue been addressed? YES/NO”

YES

7. “Do you consider the issue/hazard fixed?  YES/NO”

YES

Signature:

Date: ___/___/___

Relying on the information provided in the hazard report form, it is evident that the difficulty felt by the employees directly hampers the organization’s performance. Thus, Quan and Barger (2015) portray that the first step will be to consult with the Workplace Health and Safety Representative (WHSR) in order to ensure that the evolved problem is crucial to mitigate for the betterment of the organization. After getting confirmation by the WHSR, the developing difficulties is taken to the higher authorizes of the organization for the approval. Ndjoulou et al. (2015) demonstrate that a meeting can be conducted for the getting idea of the employee’s requirement for making the working environment more accessible to them. The organization can also take advice from the WHS experts to implement some effective measures for the betterment of the existing approach.

It is important for an employee in the restaurant to know the entire restaurant’s safety measures including the safe knife handling techniques. This knowledge regarding the technique makes them able to perform their best with efficiency in the workplace (Baker 2013). In the context of the situation when an employee is not demonstrating these techniques correctly, the supervisor or the head-chef must have to make them aware of the general instruction related to knife handling. Ironside (2014) depicted that hese information are the proper time to sharpen the knives otherwise the present chefs tries to work with the blunt knifes and may harm themselves by cutting their fingers. Furthermore, some extra measures like carrying knives slightly away from the body and storing them in their proper place so that no one can harm them accidently. All these knowledge must have to be provided by the head and leading members of the restaurants.

In order to make the new member expertly knowledgeable about the safe knife handling, Ludhra (2014) mentions that proper video of keeping the knife clean, storing the knife correctly and correct holding and cutting techniques must have to be provided to them in order to make their view clear and understandable so that they can utilize the knowledge. Regular classes have to be taken for analyzing their ability to grasp their knowledge in handling the knife with safety.  

Every organization is adopting new techniques for minimizing the environmental impacts by reducing the wastage of the materials for making the working environment better. Pfeiffer (2012) depicted that the concerned organization can take intuitive to implement modern information technology to store the data and implements electronic data interchange (EDI) for transferring data form one place to other electronically and can also use in creating tax invoice to the customers to reduce the paperwork. Musawa and Wahab (2012) illustrate that the reduction in paper usage will save the forest resource and will be beneficial for the environment. Proceeding in this way, not only the natural resources will be saved; however, by adopting modern technology, the organization will also gain competitive advantage. Portable Document Format (PDF) will be used replacing the paper advertisements and articles and flashed into the computer systems. 

Feedback system

Moreover, the employee and the daily database an easily be maintained to store the data in the technology called Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) for creating, prefilling and processing documents that on the other hand reduces the manual register management for maintaining records. Lee et al. (2015) state that the responsibility of the organization is to make the employee aware of the advantage of these technologies that they can reduce the occurrence of the manual mistakes and can maintain large data within the style. This helps in the reduction of the first resources of the future generation and impact the environment less.  

11. References

Bahn, S. and Kitching, J., 2013. Regulating small firm safety via the supply chain: implications of the Australian Work Health and Safety Act.

Bailey, T., Woolley, J. and Raftery, S., 2015. Compliance and enforcement in road safety and work health and safety: a comparison of approaches.

Baker, C.G.J., 2013. Safety and Health. In Handbook of Food Factory Design (pp. 171-198). Springer New York.

Broadfoot, R., Godat, M. and Kent, G.A., 2015. SOTrain: A new program for training supervisors and operators in Australian sugar factories. In Proceedings of the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (Vol. 37, pp. 267-277). Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists Ltd.

Cremers, J., 2015. Health and safety standards under deregulation threat. CLR News, 2015(2), pp.6-20.

Dyreborg, J., Lipscomb, H.J., Olsen, O., Törner, M., Nielsen, K., Lund, J., Kines, P., Guldenmund, F.W., Rasmussen, K., Bengtsen, E. and Gensby, U., 2015. Safety Interventions for the Prevention of Accidents in the Work Place: A Systematic Review.

Galvin, J., 2016. Director and senior management accountability for workplace health and safety. AusIMM Bulletin, (Feb 2016), p.56.

Goetsch, D.L., 2013. Construction safety and health. NJ: Pearson.

Haas, E.J. and Yorio, P., 2016. Exploring the state of health and safety management system performance measurement in mining organizations. Safety Science, 83, pp.48-58.

Hadley, J. and Tyquin, P., 2014. Harmonised work health and safety legislation: Recent developments. Governance Directions, 66(8), p.508.

Hou, C.I., Huang, H.C. and Lan, T.S., 2013. A Remote Monitoring Self-Propelled Trolley Design Using in Hotels. International Journal of Robots, Education and Art, 3(2), p.23.

Hughes, P. and Ferrett, E., 2015. Introduction to Health and Safety at Work: For the NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety. Routledge.

Ironside, J.W., 2014. Ethical, health and safety considerations. Neuropathology of Neurodegenerative Diseases Book and Online, p.51.

Lee, S.L., Ainin, S., Dezdar, S. and Mallasi, H., 2015. Electronic data interchange adoption from technological, organisational and environmental perspectives. International Journal of Business Information Systems, 18(3), pp.299-320.

Ludhra, S., 2014. Common Sense Guide to Health and Safety in Construction. Routledge.

MacEachen, E. and Kosny, A., 2016. Qualitative Evidence in Occupational Health. In Handbook of Qualitative Health Research for Evidence-Based Practice (pp. 225-241). Springer New York.

Mayer, A.S., Brazile, W.J., Erb, S., Autenrieth, D.A., Serrano, K. and Van Dyke, M.V., 2015. Developing Effective Worker Health and Safety Training Materials: Hazard Awareness, Identification, Recognition, and Control for the Salon Industry. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 57(5), pp.537-542.

Musawa, M.S. and Wahab, E., 2012. The adoption of electronic data interchange (EDI) technology by Nigerian SMEs: A conceptual framework. Journal of Business Management and Economics, 3(2), pp.055-068.

Ndjoulou, F., Desmarais, L. and Pérusse, M., 2015. Employer Responsibility for Occupational Health and Safety: Challenges, Issues and Approaches. Journal of Management, 3(1), pp.1-8.

Pfeiffer, H.K., 2012. The diffusion of electronic data interchange. Springer Science & Business Media.

Pope, R., MacDonald, D. and Orr, R., 2015. Incidence rates of reported work health & safety incidents & injuries in part-time & full-time Australian Army personnel.

Quan, S.F. and Barger, L., 2015. Brief Review: Sleep Health and Safety for Transportation Workers.

Reese, C.D., 2015. Occupational health and safety management: a practical approach. CRC press.

Schofield, T., Reeve, B. and McCallum, R., 2014. Australian workplace health and safety regulatory approaches to prosecution: Hegemonising compliance. Journal of Industrial Relations, 56(5), pp.709-729.

Seim, R., Poulsen, S. and Broberg, O., 2014. New developments in occupational health and safety management in Danish companies. Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management-Xi.

Sinclair, D.L., 2014. Workplace health and safety in the Australia coal mining industry: mistrust, management and regulation.

Smith, M. and Lee, C., 2015. Workplace: Overseas assignment?: Work health and safety obligations will apply.