Workplace Health And Safety Policy: Ensuring A Healthy And Safe Working Environment

Mission

Mission of the created policy is to ensure a healthy and safe working environment for the employees. Our workers are the valuable part of our organization, and we believe to secure them with the proper safety measures. 

To accomplish the vision of a safe and healthy work environment free of injuries, incidents, and accidents. 

Lead goal of this policy is to ensure that all the work activities are conducted safety within the organization. 

Policy Highlights

• This Policy is prepared according to the requirements of Work Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10 (herein after referred as Act).
• Inclusive points are prepared and developed within the provided framework of Work Health and Safety Regulations, 2017.
• We are committed to ensure the safety of all employees coming in various shifts.
• We are accountable to develop a safe workplace.
• We are focusing on the development of activities in a manner that will be suitable and protective for every employee.
• In addition to the management, we expect our employees to consider their own safety.
• This policy expects employees to follow all the requirements and to provide a good co-operation in order to make the same a success.
• Responsibilities of Management as well workers are mentioned separately.
• We aim at continuous and sustainable improvement of this policy. 

Management

• Management will provide the safety measures to all employees at the time of natural calamities.
• Training will be provided to all the employees.
• All the dangerous equipment, if any will be set aside with immediate effect.
• Management will co-operate with workers in case they need any advice related to workplace health and safety.
• Complaints of workers related to workplace health and safety system will be entertain within 24 hours of lodgment (except exceptional circumstances) 

Employees 

• Every worker of organization will follow the instructions provided by management in order to ensure safe working environment.
• Workers will not do any act that lead to danger for other employees.
• As required under Section 28 of the Act, apart from management, employees will be responsible for their own safety.
• It is required on the part of employees to report incidents related to WHS if comes into knowledge as soon as possible.
• Workers are advised not to misuse any provision of this Policy.

In order to ensure Zero accidents and health related issues at workplace, this Policy covers wider area and applicable to all the employees of all three shifts and includes casual and indirect employees if any. (Please refer appendix 1 for further details)

Safety of workers at workplace is a much-needed requirement in the current business scenario. Regardless the type and size of an organization, it is required to have a Workplace health and safety system (herein after mentioned as “WHS”) in every organization. In New South Wales, a separate legislation has made on this topic that is well known as Work Health and Safety Act 2011. This act binds the Crown (New South Wales Government, 2018).

According to Section 3(h) of this Act, it requires to maintain the national harmonization of work health and safety related laws and to develop a consistent national approach related to work health and safety in the applicable jurisdiction area i.e. jurisdiction of NSW.

WHS management system is a systematic methodology to identify the risk involved in working process and to development of a proper procedure in order to resolve the involved issues. Call centers are the organization where people spend most of their time on phone calls. This can create an issue of hearing. Noise is a one of the lead workplace hazard that is common at call centers (safework.nsw.gov.au, 2018). Following are the code of Practices at call centers that addresses WHS issues:

1. Computer Based work
2. Visual comfort
3. Vocal Comfort
4. Aggressive Calls
5. Headset Work (Australian Government, 2018)

In this case, as mentioned that organization is a call center hence in this scenario safety tools provided under Part 3.1 of Chapter 3 of Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 will be suitable. According to the mentioned part, specific requirements of workers must be complied with (legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2018). Elimination of risk is not practically possible so for this reason, focus of WHS management system will be on minimization of risk. In addition to this, some standards are also provided there to ensure an appropriate WHS System. AS4801 and AS4804 are the standards that provide another way to ensure the development of an appropriate WHS System. According to these standards, an organization by conducting a third party audit can review the efficiency of WHS system (logicbusinessresources, 2018). Therefore, in the given case these standards may work as an appropriate WHS system.

Vision

In order to develop a WHS management system, apart from Policy and system establishment, resources are also a mandatory part. Policy making and system establishment is a one-time task but an organization cannot develop a WHS system in a healthy and efficient manner until unless the same invest some resources on to it. A management has to introduce some resources to support WHS policy and system surety. In the given case, workplace is a call center; hence, no manufacturing or sale related activities would happen there. This is a service industry and no supply chain management related risk is there. Customer dealing is the lead activity when it comes to a call center. After reviewing all the working conditions, policy and existed WHS System, following are the resources that the management will need:-

• As mentioned in the policy that training will be provided to workers so for this, money and training equipment such as video conferencing facilities, Internet connection, Projector, and trainer would be required.
• To process a compliant of worker within 24 hours, proper staff and risk manager need to be appoint in the organization which will lead a cost.
• Damages equipment such as Mic and speakers need to be set aside according to the policy, hence there would be requirement of some junior level staff to do the necessary.
• As earlier mentioned that organization will follow the AS4801 and AS4804 standards, therefore Independent professionals would be in requirement.

It can mention here that training, trainer, money, junior and senior level staff for WHS system, support and administrations are the main resources that management of organization must provide in order to develop a proper WHS system.

Part 5 of the Act provides the provisions related to Consultation, representation and participation of various parties and participants of a WHS System. Reporting of the issues is a significant part of an efficient WHS system. Section 46 to 49 of the Act, describes the legal requirement for consultation, information sharing, and participation. Work Health and Safety Codes of Practice 2011 is a set of guidelines provided by government in this area. This practice code defines the activity of risk management at each level in a WHS system.

Section 49 of the act defines the circumstances when matters and issues related to WHS system are required to be consult (Tooma, 2012). As per the provisions of this section, there is a legal requirement to consult the health and safety related matter when the same are related to adequacy of facilities, ways of minimization of risk, assessment of risk and so on. Further Section 46 and 47 contents duties of accountable person and Section 48 of the act describes the nature of consultation (austlii, 2018). After the study of provided provisions in the act, it is to stipulate that an appropriate method of consultation in this organization will be as follow: 

First, it is the duty of a duty holder and responsible person to explain ad discuss the matter with other duty holders. After that as every safety and health related matter affect workers, therefore such matter must be further discuss with the employees. For the given case scenario, this will be an appropriate method for consultation.

Goals

Issue Resolution: – Procedure of issue resolution is provided under Sections 80 to 82 of the Act (International Labour Organization, 2018) Following is the prepared flow chart according to the requirement of relevant legislations.

Issue generation 

Discussion among the parties of the issue 

Reasonable efforts by the parties to resolve such issue 

Reporting to the Team Leader/Supervisor 

Appointment of inspector 

Similar to any other practices and procedures, only establishment and development of a WHS system is not sufficient to provide safeguard to employees. This is also mandatory to check and evaluate efficiency of mentioned system timely. There are some performance indicators by that one can know the success or failure of a WHS system in a particular organization. These indicators can further divided in two categories namely positive and negative indicators. However, in organization given in the case, following indicators can be use to evaluate WHS performance and efficiency:-

1. Regular Work Place Inspection and Audit- Timely work place inspections and audits keep an organization updated with present and potential workplace hazards. Inspections and audits shall be conducted in a manner that it provides the employees and managers with appropriate information so that proactive actions can be taken in order to reduce or eliminate the risk posed by the organization (Safe work Australia, 2017). 

1. Hazard and Incident Reporting: – Evaluation of number of hazards reported during a particular periods is a kind of Proactive Performance Indicators. In this measure, a manager shall calculate the total number of hazards, total number of high-risk hazards and ratio of completed hazards along with incident reports. Further, work health and safety manager will prepare a report based on mentioned figures and data. This report shall reflect the performance of WHS system (University of Wollongong, 2018). 

1. Worker Compensation:-In this method, a manager or a person who is responsible to ensure healthy and safe workplace will look after the claims and compensation files of the workers. Here, a person who is using this indicator will check that how many claims have made by the workers in a particular time. In addition to this ratio of injuries, which require lost time, shall also be studied. This study provides an overview of the efficiency of WHS system

Worker’s name……………                                                       Supervisor’s name…………..

Worker’s position………                                                        Worker’s start date…………

(Tick ü  if yes)

• Have you been informed about work place safety rules?                                                              ( )
• Have you been provided with the safety manuals of the machines you will be using?            ( )
• Have you been introduced with your manager & supervisor?                                                      ( )
• Have you been introduced with your work place health and safety representative?              ( )
• Are you completely aware about your rights and responsibilities towards work place           

Health and safety?

( )

• Have you read work place health and safety policy?                                                                      ( )
• Have you been provided with initial health and safety training?                                                 ( )
• Have you been informed about the actions to be taken in case of emergency?                      ( )
• Have you submitted your medical certificate with the organization?                                        ( )
• Have you been informed about the issue resolution and employee                                          

 Claim settlement process followed by the company? 

Training of managers is also a significant area of study and discussion. A security manager or a leader cannot perform their duties effectively until unless they do not have proper understanding of their role. National Safety Council of Australia has designed a course for leaders and managers who are responsible to ensure safety and security at workplace. This course is a part of training. Training is required to inform and train a manager about his roles and responsibilities. It is required to have a proper understanding of the role to manager according to the act.

In a training program that would be design for the mangers, following topics will be covered:-

• Roles and responsibilities of manager
• Importance of Safety work environment
• Legislative responsibilities
• Consultation procedure
• Manner in which an issue should be entertain
• Risk management Procedure (National Safety Council of Australia, 2018)

In order to know the importance of training to mangers, it can state that after such training a manager or a security leader will become more clear about his role and he/she will be updated with the fact that what his/her organization and other employees expecting for him/her.

References 

Austlii. (2018). Work Health And Safety Act 2011.  [online] Available from: https://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/whasa2011218/ [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Australian Government. (2018) CALL CENTRES A guide to safe work. [online] Available from: https://www.comcare.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/41281/Call_centres_-_A_guide_to_safe_work_PDF,_1.59_MB.pdf [Accessed on 11/07/18]

International Labour Organization. (2018) Work Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10. [online] Available from: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=93156 [Accessed on 11/07/18]

legislation.nsw.gov.au. (2018) Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017. [online] Available from: https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/regulations/2017-404.pdf [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Logicbusinessresources. (2018) What is AS 4801:2001 / OHSAS 18001? [online] Available from: https://www.logicbusinessresources.com.au/services_whs_asnzs4801.html [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Policy Highlights

National Safety Council of Australia. (2018) Safety for Leaders. [online] Available from: https://training.nsca.org.au/training-courses/whs-for-managers-and-supervisors/safety-for-leaders.cfm [Accessed on 11/07/18]

New South Wales Government. (2018) Work Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10. [online] Available from: https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/2011/10/part1/div4/sec10 [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Safe work Australia. (2017) Measuring and reporting on work health and safety. [online] Available from:  https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1802/measuring-and-reporting-on-work-health-and-safety.pdf [Accessed on 11/07/18]

safework.nsw.gov.au (2018) Hazardous Noise And Hearing Loss At Work: The Facts. [online] Available from: https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/media/publications/health-and-safety/hazardous-manual-tasks/hazardous-noise-and-hearing-loss-at-work-the-facts [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Tooma, M. (2012) Tooma’s Annotated Work Health and Safety Act 2011. New South Wales: Thomson Reuters.

University of Wollongong. (2018) WHS Performance Measurement And Reporting Guidelines. [online] Available from:  https://staff.uow.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@ohs/documents/doc/uow016964.pdf [Accessed on 11/07/18] 

Work Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10

Work Health and Safety Codes of Practice 2011

Work Health and Safety Regulations, 2017

austlii. (2018) Work Health And Safety Act 2011.  [online] Available from: https://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/whasa2011218/ [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Australian Government. (2018) CALL CENTRES A guide to safe work. [online] Available from: https://www.comcare.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/41281/Call_centres_-_A_guide_to_safe_work_PDF,_1.59_MB.pdf [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Guhan,P., Sievewright, B.,and Evans , P. (2014) Work place health and safety, business productivity and  sustainability .[online] Available from: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1702/workplace-health-safety-business-productivity-sustainability.pdf [Accessed: 11/07/18]

Health and Safety Authority. (2018) safety and heath Management System. [online] Available from: https://www.hsa.ie/eng/Topics/Managing_Health_and_Safety/Safety_and_Health_Management_Systems/ [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Hughes, P., and Ferret,E. (2013) International health and safety at work. 2^nd ed. Landon: Routledge.

International Labour Organization. (2018) Work Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10. [online] Available from: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=93156 [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Katsuro, P.,and Muparaorano, S.(2010) Impact of occupational health and safety on worker productivity: A case of Zimbabwe food industry. African journal of business management,4(13), pp.2644-2651.

legislation.nsw.gov.au. (2018) Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017. [online] Available from: https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/regulations/2017-404.pdf [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Logicbusinessresources. (2018) What is AS 4801:2001 / OHSAS 18001? [online] Available from: https://www.logicbusinessresources.com.au/services_whs_asnzs4801.html [Accessed on 11/07/18]

National Safety Council of Australia. (2018) Safety for Leaders. [online] Available from: https://training.nsca.org.au/training-courses/whs-for-managers-and-supervisors/safety-for-leaders.cfm [Accessed on 11/07/18]

New South Wales Government. (2018) Work Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10. [online] Available from: https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/2011/10/part1/div4/sec10 [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Prescribe Australia (2018) Prescribe:prevent injury,change behaviour. [online]Available from: https://prescribeaustralia.com.au/services/injury-management/whs-implementation/ [Accessed: 11/07/18]

Safe work Australia. (2017) Measuring and reporting on work health and safety. [online] Available from:  https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1802/measuring-and-reporting-on-work-health-and-safety.pdf [Accessed on 11/07/18]

safework.nsw.gov.au (2018) Hazardous Noise And Hearing Loss At Work: The Facts. [online] Available from: https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/media/publications/health-and-safety/hazardous-manual-tasks/hazardous-noise-and-hearing-loss-at-work-the-facts [Accessed on 11/07/18]

Tooma, M. (2012) Tooma’s Annotated Work Health and Safety Act 2011. New South Wales: Thomson Reuters.

University of Wollongong. (2018) WHS Performance Measurement And Reporting Guidelines. [online] Available from:  https://staff.uow.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@ohs/documents/doc/uow016964.pdf [Accessed on 11/07/18] 

Work Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10

Work Health and Safety Codes of Practice 2011

Work Health and Safety Regulations, 2017

workplaceohs.com.au. (2018) NSW legislation. [online] Available from: https://workplaceohs.com.au/legislation/nsw-legislation [Accessed on 11/07/18]