PY_Week 1 revision (Group: Jay,Renmy and Krishna)

 1. WHS legislation - NT and federal, are they different? why?

In Australia WHS is a State, not a Federal, government responsibility – so WHS compliance is made more complicated because each State and Territory has its own WHS laws.

To deal with this, the Federal government passed the Work Health and Safety Act (Cth) in 2011, with the intention that each State would use it as a model for their own laws, thus harmonising the system across Australia. 

In 2012, laws reflecting the Federal legislation were passed by New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. Victoria and Western Australia retain their own systems; however, they share the same basic general principles.  

Discussion of WHS law in this Manual will be based on the model Federal legislation as enacted by the majority of States. The assumption is made that compliance with the model legislation will generally ensure compliance with Victorian or WA legislation, except where specifically notified.

Each State has the following framework of WHS laws:

(a) an Act, to outline broad responsibilities, duties, offences, processes and enforcement measures;

(b) Regulations to set out specific requirements for particular hazards and risks;

(c) Codes of Practice to provide information on specific issues relating to meeting WHS requirements (eg confined spaces, noise); and

(d) establishment of a Regulating Agency to administer the laws, inspect workplaces, provide advice, enforce laws and impose penalties for breaches.

2. Duty of care - your duty of care in the workplace for yourself and others, why is this important?

While at work, workers must take reasonable care for their own health and safety, and that of others who may be affected by the worker’s acts or omissions. 

A worker must also: 

comply, so far as they  are reasonably able, with any reasonable instruction that is given by the PCBU to comply with the model WHS Act and 

cooperate with any reasonable policy or procedure of the PCBU relating to health or safety at the workplace that has been notified to workers. 

A worker can be prosecuted for failing to comply with their duties.

3. Hierarchy of control - what is this and why do we need to have this in the workplace?

The hierarchy of control is a system for controlling risks in the workplace. The hierarchy of control is a step-by-step approach to eliminating or reducing risks and it ranks risk controls from the highest level of protection and reliability through to the lowest and least reliable protection.

Eliminating the hazard and risk is the highest level of control in the hierarchy, followed by reducing the risk through substitution, isolation and engineering controls, and then reducing the risk through administrative controls. Reducing the risk through the use of protective personal equipment (PPE) is the lowest level of control.

4. Bullying happens at work when:

A person or group of people repeatedly behave unreasonably towards another worker or group of workers

The behaviour creates a risk to health and safety.

 Sexual harassment at the workplace: Some forms of sexual harassment can also be considered bullying if the behaviour is repeated or continuous. But unlike bullying, sexual harassment does not need to be continuous or repeated behaviour, it can be a one-off event. There is also no need to establish a risk to health and safety.

Discrimination in the workplace: Bullying is different from discrimination. The Fair Work Act prohibits an employer from taking adverse action against an employee for discriminatory reasons, including their sex, race, religion or gender. Adverse action can include firing or demoting someone.

5. Policies and procedures - Every Australian business has policies and procedures we must follow why? Where do these come from?

Purpose:  to establish and maintain an effective health and safety management system.

Where: Safe Work Australia is an Australian government statutory agency. They develop a national policies to improve work health and safety (WHS) and workers’ compensation arrangements across Australia.