Question:
Describe about the workplace health and safety acts in Australia.
Establishment of the safer and secure approaches within an organisational scenario helps in achieving the success of the business. The promotion of the workplace health and safety approaches is the driving force for retaining staffs and increasing the productivity (Chan-Mok, Caponecchia and Winder 2014). The implementation of the safe and healthy practices may sometimes require the higher cost of installing the safe equipments. However, ignoring such actions would be even much severe for a workplace. The employers have to maintain their responsibilities to promote the health and safety within the workplace, which will be signifying that the employees or the customers would not face any health related hazards (Stavropoulos 2014). Each of the state and the territory has to set the principle of the health and safety acts to ensure the needs related to the workplace health and safety aspects.
The study is based on the promotion of the health and safety approaches in NSW, Australia. The study will be associated with the responsibilities of both the employers and employees towards the act. This segment will be followed by the set of objectives related to the health and safety acts. The association of the human resource responsibilities in implementing the OHS and acts within a workplace will also be discussed accordingly.
The implementation of the occupational health and safety approaches in Australia is considering the development of the national policy. The Union Charter of Workplace Rights mentioned, “Australian law must ensure healthy and safe workplaces and a compensation and rehabilitation system which ensures that no worker is disadvantaged should they be injured at work” (Safeatwork.org.au. 2016). The implementation of such acts is helpful enough in improvising the work health and safety arrangements by providing the compensation to the workers across Australia. WHS act in NSW is mainly concentrating on both preventing and improving the safety culture within the organisations in New South Wales (Galvin 2016). The principles related to the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 is backed by the regulations related to the work place health and safety. It is to be indicated that the WHS Act 2011 has enlarged the amount of people who are associated with the duty of care (Workplaceohs.com.au 2011). Furthermore, it can be stated that the employers need to manage their responsibilities towards successful management of the risks involved in the workplac
The WHS act in NSW is associated with a set of objectives, which are as follows:
The objectives set for promoting the workplace safety act (WHS) are as follows:
Organisational health and safety or the workplace health and safety are considered as a disciplinary approach based on the safety and security of the stakeholders in the workplace. The enactment of the health and safety laws is concentrating on the guiding principles related to the safer approaches maintained in the workplace (Richardson 2013). The mining industry is mostly associated with the maximum risks for the employees while working with the work related instruments. Apart from the mining industry, employees of health care departments and other industries are also associated with such work place risks. However, the implementation of the workplace safety law has been improvising the productivity of workplace activities (Schofield, Reeve and McCallum 2014). The employers in NSW found out that the employees engaged with the mining industry are much involved with the risks. Hence, the act has been implemented to minimise or prevent the hazardous situations that may harm the employees within a workplace.
The enactment of the workplace health and safety law is mainly depending on the responsibilities maintained by the employers to facilitate the organisational based activities. The maintenance of the responsibilities has been ensuring the prevention or the minimisation of the probable risks that the employees may face while performing any organisational activity (Santos et al. 2013). The set of the responsibilities that are needed to be maintained by the employers are listed as follows:
It is much important to consult with the employees for the enactment of health and safety laws for managing the actions more effectively. The consultation process helps the employers to pay attention towards any work health related hazards that may cause harm to the employees. More specifically, the process is even helpful enough in promoting the positive traits of the health and safety cultures (Waldron 2013). Accordingly, the employees receive the opportunity to influence the associated procedures and policies. The bonding between the employers and the employees are also becoming much strong (Safeatwork.org.au 2016). The failure of the communication may affect the employees and the risks may increase accordingly.
The health and safety representatives (HSR) have been playing much significant role in the workplaces of NSW. Schofield, Reeve and McCallum (2014) mentioned that the major responsibility of the HSR is to provide the proper means for the workers that will be helpful enough in raising the safety issues to the management. In focusing on such issues, the employer would undertake the relevant process for resolving them. The representatives are elected and they usually represent the risk management teams to discuss the issues received from the employees.
While conducting the process of selecting the representatives for the work place health and safety, some of the steps are needed to be followed. As per the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, the workplace needs to include one or more work groups. The negotiation of people included in the work group can take place. Santos et al. (2013) suggested that the HSR is needed to be accessible for each of the employees. The negotiation process starts within 14 days of the request date. This negotiation process includes the composition of the work groups within the workplace. Moreover, the number of HSR and deputy HSR is also needed to be determined. All members of the group can vote for selecting the HSR. After three years the HSR needs to leave the work group by providing the resignation letter (Johnstone, Bluff and Clayton 2012). The associated training and development process is also needed to be considered.
The human resource management has to maintain the significant responsibilities in promoting the health and safety act within the workplace. The set of responsibilities maintained by the HR is as follows:
Conclusion
Workplace health and safety is one of the major aspects within a workplace. While recruiting the employees, the employers have to consider the workplace safety that will prevent the hazardous situation from being faced by the employees. Therefore, the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 was established in the workplaces of NSW, Australia. The principles of workplace health and safety need to concentrate on several objectives that are necessary to be followed while promoting the act of health and safety. It is to be indicated that both the employers and the employees need to maintain the set of responsibilities to promote the workplace safety and security. The consultants need to provide some advices while making any decision based on this aspect. The representatives are selected by the group members and they present the safety related concerns to the higher authority. The human resource management is also playing the vital role in promoting the practices of workplace health and safety. The HR helps in establishing the communication transparency between the employers and the employees. Even sometimes, they work as the mediator to convey the messages of the employees to the HSR. The maintenance of these aspects has been promoting the safer approaches within the workplace.
References
Blewett, V., Rainbird, S., Clarkson, L., Etherton, H. and Paterson, J., 2014. Strategic engagement: including youth in the development of the Youth Work Health and Safety Strategy for South Australia. In Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management XI: Nordic Ergonomics Society Annual Conference Proceedings (pp. 711-716).
Chan-Mok, J.O., Caponecchia, C. and Winder, C., 2014. The concept of workplace bullying: Implications from Australian workplace health and safety law. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 21(3), pp.442-456.
Consultaustralia.com.au. 2016.Workplace Health & Safety (OHS) .
Galvin, J., 2016. Director and senior management accountability for workplace health and safety. AusIMM Bulletin, (Feb 2016), p.56.
Johnstone, R., Bluff, E. and Clayton, A., 2012. Work health and safety law and policy. Thomson Reuters.
Richardson, K., 2013. The application of a workplace health and safety obligation to the common law duty of care.
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