Occupational Health And Safety Policies And Management Systems – A Review

Summary of Functions and Responsibilities

The report introduces the various occupational and safety policies that should be introduced and implied. The policies include the work health and safety policy. These policies show the commitment of the workers and management regarding the safety and health objectives that aim at diminishing the risk factors towards welfare and health of all the workers.

The purpose of the report summarizes the duties and functions that are linked to WHS for ensuring that all the work related activities are done in a proper and safe manner. This report also deals with the safety management system for maintaining and improving the situations of a company. Lastly, the report concludes by discussing the ways for taking the company to a better situation.

Discussion

• Legislative Framework– It has been observed that the legislative framework of WHS is a set of guidelines for the employers that help in providing secured and safer work environment for their workers (McDonald & Vital, 2016). The general purpose of the framework is to ensure that every employer can use their own available rights in their duties. These frameworks should be in the form of written regulations where the company can follow for providing safety to the workers (Donham & Thelin, 2016). Therefore, it can be said that the legislative framework takes care of all the relevant and necessary information, which an employer should follow as per the laws that govern the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Almost et al., 2018).
• Overview of the WHS Act and Regulation–The Work Health and Safety Act acts as that legislation which covers the administrative and legislative measure for maintaining and improving the occupational health of the workers or employees working (Sinelnikov, Inouye & Kerper, 2015). The major objectives and aims cover a large variety of situations for providing considerable flexibility for the person holding the duty. The Work Health and Safety Regulations are made under the authority and framework of this Act. It therefore specifies the methods in which duties are imposed by the Act. The duties must be carried out to support the Act by obtaining licenses for maintaining the records (Yazdani at al., 2015).
• Overview of duties– As per the Occupational Health and Safety Law, the employers of an organization has a few duties and responsibilities to carry out and perform accordingly. As per Allison v London Underground Ltd [2008] EWCA civ 71 (13 February 2008) the duties must include providing a workplace that is free from all kinds of serious identified hazards along with the rules and regulations that have been issued under the above-mentioned act (Niu et al., 2018). To ensure the employees at their workplace use that safe and secured tools. Another duty is to examine the work conditions so that they can be applied to the standards of OHS. Thus, it can be said that the Occupational Health and Safety laws needs employers and all the other workplace individuals to engage and cooperate in the management of the workplace risks. The purpose of the duties is to protect the safety and health of workers from all kinds of risk that can arise while working (Lay et al., 2016). The basic principle of overview of duties of OHS is applicable mostly in all the jurisdictions. The Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2004 imposes a duty of care on a range of all the workplace individuals consisting of all the self-employed persons, employers, manufacturers, suppliers of the office equipment, plant and machinery (Amponsah-Tawiah & Mensah, 2016). It is the responsibility of the duty holders to make sure that employees are not exposed to any kind of risk that arises from the work. This was discussed in the case of Tabcorp Holdings Ltd v Dank [2011] QCA 253.
• Duty under the legislation– As per the legislation and the enacted law, the duty is invested with the employers. While carrying out the duties, theresponsibility should extend to all the existing independent contractors along with their employees where the employer has the power to control the situation (Kumie et al., 2016). The employers should also make sure that the non-employees do not have to face any kind of risk from health or safety risks. It is thus the duty of the employers to regulate and monitor the health conditions of the workers by providing relevant information (Battaglia, Passetti & Frey, 2015). These duties have been discussed by Eh Humphries (Norton) ltd. Thistle Hotels Plc v Fire Alarm Fabrication Services Ltd. [2006] EWCA civ 1496
• Current safety systems at rattle engineering–The present situation of Rattle Engineering requires the Work, Health and Safety legislations must be applied in this certain scenario and safety measures must be taken for the betterment of Rattle Engineering. Improvements must be made accordingly after maintaining the safety measures to ensure that no risk arises while the employees are working (Finkel et al., 2018). The development should be done to receive the strategic appraisal. All the WHS policies must be applied in Rattle Engineering.
• PCBU– The purpose of PCBU is to form a business that can operate for both profit and non-profit. The aim is to focus on the arrangements of the work along with the relationships for carrying out the work. As a worker, he will have a certain duties that must be performed (Olle-Espluga et al., 2015). As per the case of Parry v Woolworths Limited [2009] QCA 26 [2010] 1 Qd R 1 (08/6685) the worker or officer should take proper care for their own health and safety of themselves and others as well. Reasonable instructions, procedure and policies must be followed as the controller of the workplace generally provides it. It has been observed that partners involved in a partnership are not considered to be officers but are PCBUs. Hence, they have the power to exercise to make sure that PCBU complies with all the existing duties as per the legislation of WHS (Mohammadfam et al., 2016).
• Duties of officers– Officers of the organization have a few obligations that helps in ensuring that the business complies with the necessary work safety and health obligations under the laws of WHS. This has been defined under Section 27 of the WHS Act. Therefore, the duties of WHS including to make sure that all the arrangements of the business must comply with the legal obligations. Thereafter, the duty of an officer is majorly to prohibit accidents, any kind of illness at workplace and injuries (Ellen et al., 2016). Their another duty is to form and implement all the health and safety policies and procedures as per the legislation. This will help to make sure that the mentioned policies are carried out inside the workplace. Hence, the officer will owe a duty under the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011.
• Duties of workers and other persons– As per the legislation of WHS, a worker has certain duties that he needs to carry out or perform. Firstly, he must take proper and reasonable care for their own safety and health. Secondly, adequate care must be provided for the safety of others as well. Lastly, a worker must follow all the necessary policies, instructions and procedures that have been directed by the employer of the undertaking. Workers should carry out their duties efficiently as it has been observed in the case of Ruben v Lockpa Investments (Pty) Ltd & another [2006] Other persons in this scenario include those individuals who are associated with the organization or the undertaking. Even the other persons have to be careful while working with the organization (Hamia et al., 2017). The above-mentioned are the basic duties of the workers that must be carried out and followed.
• Specific duties related to the scenario- In the provided scenario, as the Managing Director, his duty would be to inform and discuss the functions of the company as it is related to the legislative obligations of WHS (Gopang et al., 2017). All the workers and employees of Rattle Engineering must carry out their duties accordingly and perform them in such a manner so that no kind of risk arises. As the safety manager, he must know how to handle all the activities that take place in the organization. These specific duties must be performed accordingly (Coulson, 2018). Hence, rattle engineering can be managed with proper supervision if all the workers and officers carry out the activities in a proper manner.
• The implications for double workforce size- Securing the health of the workers of the undertaking is important as per the legislations and obligations of WHS. It is therefore, essential to improve the model of work health and safety laws. Double workforce size refers to a situation where there can be extra work and problems arising (Sanchez, Palaez & Alis, 2017). Work-related illness and injuries can occur if the workforce is twice in size. However, the purpose of the WHS legislation is to minimize the social and economic impact on the community and on the workers as well. There will be implications if the workforce size is double the size. Double the effort will affect the performance of the organization when the legislations of WHS are applied. A good regulation must include all the principles and features.
• Duties as prime contractor or subcontractor and duties to specialist contractors–In this scenario, prime contractors are also known as the principal contractors. Therefore, every prime contractor has a few specific duties as per the legislations and obligations of WHS (Inan, Gul & Yilmaz, 2017). Contractors are required to act with proper due care and diligence while carrying out the activities and their work as observed in the case of Commissioner for the SARS v Thor Chemical SA (Pyt) Ltd. Hence, a prime contractor’s duty and responsibilities is to conduct an undertaking or an organization. Specialist contractor has a few duties that must be carried out in the workplace. Specialist contractors are known for carrying out a specific type of work. Their role is to represent the health and safety interests of the workers within the workgroup at the time of carrying on the business (Autenrieth et al., 2016).
• Non-destructive testing implications –The term Non-destructive testing refers to a wide group of techniques that are generally used in the industry of technology and science. The purpose of NDT is to evaluate all the properties of the existing components by not creating any kind of harm or damage. This particular technique helps in saving both money and time. Machinery techniques are implied on the undertaking known as Rattle Engineering. It is required in all the industrial activities as the applications and methods are implied. There are methods of non-destructive as to how the industry should work. All the implications are applied in this situation and hence the testing of non-destructive is needed. There are clinical procedures that must also be given attention so that the workers can have a safe environment in work structure.
• Importing sealants, metal cleaners, primers and implications–The importing sealants, metal cleaners and primers are used when workers are working in the organization. The employees use plant and machinery while they are working. This relates to all the electrical safety in the workplaces as well. Duties are generally imposed on the designs of the plant and machinery. Metal cleaners must also be used with proper care so that no worker, officer or employee gets hurt. Therefore, when any plant or machinery is used in an industry, it must be handled with proper care.  There must be risk management practices in the workplace. Hazards should be identified and recognized and must be dealt with care. This will keep the workshop or factory in a safe condition.
• Import, manufacture, taste and repair components–For the process of manufacturing, all the necessary components must be present. Therefore, the components are thereafter imported and repaired when needed. If there is any kind of problem in the manufacturing industry process then the repair components will be used. The workers as well as the manufacturers have to be updated with the procedure and techniques that must be used. Importing is also a procedure that is related to the industry. As per the case scenario, Rattle Engineering also uses this entire procedure and manufactures thereafter. The repair components act as the savior when the products are damaged in nature.

Conclusion

• Legislative Duties– While dealing with the legislative duties, a duty holder is referred to that person who works in the health and safety duty as per the regulations of the WHS Act. This will therefore consist of an individual who must carry out an undertaking, importer, supplier of the products or the particular plants that are used. It has been observed that the duties under the WHS Act cannot be transferred. Being the duty holders and practitioners of WHS, duties are therefore imposed on an individual to make sure that the person acquires proper health and safety. A principal duty holder is bound to follow the relevant legislations of the business.
• Duties are discharged when the duty holders carry out their activities accordingly. A duty holder is imposed with all the duties as per the Health and Safety at Work Act, 2015 along with Hazardous Substances and New Organism Act, 1996. It was observed in the case of Cape Metropolitan Council v Graham [2001]. Their role and responsibility is to authorize all the policies of WHS and the strategies. Legislative duties include ensuring all the responsibilities and the officers who have to allocate the resources to make sure that it has an effective hazard as well as the risk management.

Recommendations

• Five Key priorities–To ensure that Work Health and Safety Policies are maintained, an individual is needed to carry out a business with the ones who are associated with the work. The first key point states that duty of care refers to an individual whose duty is to ensure the safety and health of all the individuals who are engaged with the business. The concept of duty of care involves covering the work systems, environment, structure of the plant and machinery. Along with these suppliers, adequate information is also required. The second priority consists of the concept of ensuring health and safety. It refers to a situation where it helps in demolishing the existing risk factors. The third priority discusses the concept of reasonably practicable method of controlling risk. It thereafter discusses the probability of the hazard and risk that arises and how the businesses can reduce or diminish them. However, this leads to specific obligations that are linked to the risk that arises in the industry or undertaking. The fourth priority is to help in the process of reducing risk management by recognizing the hazards and assessing the risk. The last priority is to ensure the workplace safety is constant.
• Legislative requirements as part of the tender – From the scenario, it can be said that certain requirements should be fulfilled for Rattle Engineering. Being the safetymanager of the undertaking, he must check on the legislative areas, which acts as the part of the tender. Making changes for improving the safety standard for the workers as well as the employers.
• Plant and equipment–Using safe plant and machinery is important as it refers to a large range of installations, tools and equipment. It is beneficial for the workers as well as the employers (Battaglia, Passetti & Frey, 2015). To ensure the safety among them, safe and secured plant and machinery must be used. The usual types of plant in the workplace consist of magnetic equipments, electronic components and materials. Therefore, for maintaining proper and safe health, secured equipments must be used in industries. Safe products should be used.
• WHS Policy–The purpose of the Work Health and Safety policy is to make sure that the proper standards and regulations are maintained in the workplace. This is to ensure that the every employee and worker are safe within the workplace. There are existing legislations available for improving the health conditions. The policies of reducing hazardous risks are necessary as it will have a positive outcome. The scope of WHS policies thereafter states there are existing legal responsibilities as well as duties for both the officers and the employees. The regulations deal with a certain kind of risks including manual handling and machinery. Policy Statement is formed to make sure that there is a safe and healthy work environment for all the employees and the employees. The policies also include the roles and responsibilities while carrying out all the activities.
• Communication and Consultation–The basic mechanism for communication and consultation on safety and health related matters provides a proper and direct connection between the employers and employees working in the undertaking (Amponsah-Tawiah & Mensah, 2016). Therefore, in case of Rattle Engineering, proper communication and consultation was required between the prime contractor and the sub-contractor. Hence, consultation among the group of workers also plays a significant role in such a situation.
• Hazardous Substances– In any workplace, there should not be use of any kind of hazardous substances. It has been observed that hazardous materials or substances tend to increase the level of risk in the organization. Therefore, usage of safe plant and equipment is mandatory for maintaining a healthy and safe work environment for all the workers. The most important policy of WHS is to reduce the level of risk factors in the business.
• Contractor Management- The role of the contractor Manager is to check on all the necessary and legal requirements of the undertaking. Therefore, it can be said that the contractor manages the relationship between the employers and the employees in the organization (Donham & Thelin, 2016). Hence, it can be said that the contractor management focuses on the working relationship between the individuals.
• Benefits of recommendation– The purpose of recommendations is to make the situation or scenario better. The above-mentioned merits of WHS can help in maintaining the level of health and safety matters of an organization. Hence, if all the recommendations are followed then the limit of risk will reduce and the healthy environment will become better.

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