WHS Policies and Procedures for Workplace Safety: Hazards of Slips, Trips & Falls

This article discusses the hazards of slips, trips & falls in the workplace due to loose cables and wires. It identifies the relevant legislations and organizational policies to address these hazards and suggests control methods and organizational procedures to prevent them.

Running head: WHS POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
WHS Policies and Procedures
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Assessment
Task 1
1. In the organization, the group of people or the employees sitting in the first floor of the
organization building was identified. The employees of the IT organization were
consulted and queries with different variety of questions and queries.
2. The identified research for this assignment is the tripping and falling due to the loose
cables and the wires in the office floor.
Proper researches in to the issues were targeted with the questioning and
discussion with the employees of the organization.
3. The relevant legislations and the organizational policies that may address the issues are:
 Work Place Health and Safety Acts or the Occupational Health and Safety Acts
 NSW code of practises
 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations
 Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations
 Manual Handling Operations Regulations
 Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations
 Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations

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4. The Report

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Workplace Safety – The Recognition of the Hazard
Slips, Trips& Falls - Description
The slipping and tripping or falling in the workplace is one of the most common hazards
faced by the employees at the workplace (Gomaa et al. 2015). The main issue is encircled on
loose wires and cables. Wires and the cables from the phone, laptops, internet connections and
other office equipment create tripling hazard if stretched across the walkways where the people
walk.
Causes
Some of the relevant causes for the hazard are Sloped walking surfaces, loose floorboards
or shifting tiles, loose, unanchored rugs or mats (Muramatsu et al. 2018). Untangled wires at the
surfaces together with loose cable cords and the data cables of the phone and the laptop charger
in the walkway surface are some of the major causes for the slipping and tripping at workplace.
Effects
Some of the effects are Employees getting their feet caught in the cord and the wire,
uunfocused steps in the untangled electric wires may lead to further injuries, tripp and falls due
to wires, head injury ,injury and cut in the hands and in the feet, damage of the office equipment,
leg injury and permanent disability
Control Methods
The control measures are the following:

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Figure 1; The control measures
Source: (Hakim and Moamen 2018)
The above figure illustrates the factors and the control measures for
the improvement and the evaluation of the identified hazard issue at the
workplace.
Organizational Procedures
The procedures are the following:
 Creation of good housing practises
 Reduction of slippery and wired surfaces (Di Pilla 2016)
 Avoid towards the creation of any sort of obstacles in walkways
 Proper lighting
 Individual behaviour

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Identifying and Treating Hazards
Wires and the cables protruding in the aisle pose a high level of tripping hazard. The electric
wires and the charger cables that are stretch across the pathways cause’s people passing in busy
schedule fall and hurt themselves. Some of the benefits of the identification and the consultation
includes implementation of awareness, recognition of the work place health and safety rules and
the policies, identification of the wires and the free wires in the workplace floor, detangling and
plugging of the electric wires, taking the help of the technical team in the floor, reduction in the
number of falls and trips, reduction in the head and the muscle injury and reduction in the
damage of the workplace equipments
Consultation
The consultation for the hazard of the slipping and tripping includes
some of the major benefits. These are securing of the cords and the wires
with the help of the zip ties for the reduction in the slack and to keep the
wires together, to relocate the wires under or behind the furniture and the
equipment, placing of the device and the retractable cables on the surface of
the desktop instead of the floor.
Relevant Legislation
The relevant legislations to address the issue identified are Work Place
Health and Safety Acts or the Occupational Health and Safety Acts, NSW
code of practises, Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations,

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Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations, Manual Handling
Operations Regulations, Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations,
Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations
Hazard and Treatment
The treatment for the hazard includes a proper consultation plan
including compliance with the WHS standards, ensure the hazard
identification and procedures of risk management includes proper
identification and the effects of the hazard identified, review the progress of
the accountability area’s against the WHS plan and proper communication
with the relevant stakeholders.

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Task 2 -done in the appendix
Task 3-
Task 4-
Task 5
Organization of a safety action meeting with the team.
Before the conduction of the meeting, it is important for the leaders of the team to note
down the factors affecting the workplace environments, the hazards identified in the workplace
and the possible remedies and treatments for it. The consultation regarding the analysis of the
hazard and its possible remedial measures are some of the important factors that needs to be
discussed together with the consideration of the cost to the control measurements for the hazards.
a. Consultation of the analysis – The team leaders and the managers should gather
together and discuss the notes and the presentation they need to explain in the
meetings. They furthermore should revise the policy statements that should be
followed in the organization under the WHS policy rules. Suggested measures
towards the identified hazards should also be noted prior the meeting.
b. Cost to the control measures of the hazard - It is important to have effective controls
towards the protection of the workers and the office equipment from the workplace
hazards. This helps in avoiding illness, injuries, minimization of the accidents and the
incidents from the identified hazard of tripping and slipping. There are several
measures for the effective control of the hazard at the workplace.

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Control Measures Cost Time
Identification of the hazards
like the free wires and the
cables in the floor
$20 2 weeks
Selection of the controls
and the elimination of the
unwanted and the unsafe
wires
$12 1 month
Development of updated
hazard control plans for the
employees
$50 4 weeks
Protection of the employees
and the workers for non
routine operations and
unsafe emergencies
$38 2-3 month
Implementation of controls
in the workplace so that
other employees do not get
affected or hurt
$101 4 weeks
Follow up for the
confirmation of the
effectiveness of the controls
$54 1-2 weeks
Recruitment of the new $45 1 and half month

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technical employees for
ensuring safety of the
employees
Task 6
Report for health and safety representative:
Proper query and consultation with the employees of the organization was conducted.
One to one meeting and sessions with the HR manger was furthermore done for the identification
and analysis together with proper consultation towards the risks of the hazard and the effects the
hazard can produce were done (Chang et al. 2016). Some of the risks for the hazard includes
employees getting their feet caught in the cord and the wire, uunfocused steps in the untangled
electric wires may lead to further injuries, tripp and falls due to wires, head injury ,injury and
cut in the hands and in the feet, damage of the office equipment, leg injury and permanent
disability.
The relevant legislations to address the issue identified are Work Place
Health and Safety Acts or the Occupational Health and Safety Acts, NSW
code of practises, Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations,
Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations, Manual Handling
Operations Regulations, Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations,
Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations
Some of the future monitoring activities for the ensuring of the implementation of the
control measures include making sure that the workplace is adequately lit, checking for ensuring
the factor that the carpeting of the office floor is flat, looking for the loose and the easily

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accessible floorboards, keeping the file cabinets and the desk closed when they are not in use,
always posing sign when there lies any sort of hazard, advise and the warning the employee of
the organization towards wearing the appropriate footwear, having the housekeeping protocols in
correct place avoiding the obstacles and the clutters around the floor of the workplace, access to
the flooring and presence of technicians in the floor in case of wire and cable issues.

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References
Chang, W.R., Leclercq, S., Lockhart, T.E. and Haslam, R., 2016. State of science: occupational
slips, trips and falls on the same level. Ergonomics, 59(7), pp.861-883.
Di Pilla, S., 2016. Slip, trip, and fall prevention: A practical handbook. CRC Press.
Gomaa, A.E., Tapp, L.C., Luckhaupt, S.E., Vanoli, K., Sarmiento, R.F., Raudabaugh, W.M.,
Nowlin, S. and Sprigg, S.M., 2015. Occupational traumatic injuries among workers in health
care facilities—United States, 2012–2014. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report,
64(15), p.405.
Hakim, S.A. and Moamen, M., 2018. HEALTH HAZARDS AND SAFETY CULTURE
DESCRIPTION AMONG CABLE MANUFACTURE EGYPTIAN WORKERS. Egyptian
Journal of Occupational Medicine, 42(3), pp.411-426.
Muramatsu, N., Sokas, R.K., Chakraborty, A., Zanoni, J.P. and Lipscomb, J., 2018. Slips, Trips,
and Falls Among Home Care Aides: A Mixed-Methods Study. Journal of occupational and
environmental medicine, 60(9), p.796.

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