CLET PSPLEG003: Compliance Report - Department of Health Analysis

This compliance report for the Department of Health, a government agency in Australia, examines the organization's adherence to various legislative requirements. The report addresses the importance of work practices and procedures in ensuring compliance with legislation such as workplace health and safety, equal employment opportunity, and ethical conduct. It outlines current requirements under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and the Equal Opportunity Act 1984, specific to the workplace of Grafton Base Hospital, New South Wales. The report further details the exercise of discretion within the organization, procedures for encouraging advice on conflicting legislative requirements, and the meanings of equal employment opportunities, equity, and diversity. It also discusses environmental and occupational health and safety procedures, inadequacies in procedures leading to non-compliance, relevant codes of conduct and ethics, and the consequences of non-compliance, including transfers, fines, demotions, dismissals, and legal liability. The report emphasizes the importance of following prescribed rules and regulations for effective organizational development.

College for Law Education and Training
PSPLEG003
Assessment task 4
Compliance Report
Our reference: CLET Student
Your reference: CLET
Date:
To: College for Law Education and Training
From:
Subject:
INTRODUCTION
Compliance means the state or fact of meeting rules, policies or standards set by an
organisation efficiently. In accordance with this context, the compliance report of Department of
health a government agency operating in Australia, will be made. This report will consist of all the
legislation and acts such as workplace, workplace health and safety, equal employment opportunity,
equity and diversity principles that are necessary for the organisation to comply with will be
described. It is essential for an organisation to follow certain rules and regulations in order for
effective growth and development.
Internal memorandum addressing the answers of following questions
1) Importance of work practices and procedure being used to provide a consistent model of
compliance with legislative requirements within the Department of Health is provided below:
 Workplace health and safety: Workplace health and safety compliance is very important for
the organisation to follow, in order to avoid any uncertainties or future risk while doing
specific work activities (Smith and Lee, 2015). The management of Department of health
had formulated and implemented policies like employees are provided with efficient
environment that promotes and supports the physical and psychological health and improved
their well-being in the organisation. Though there are few loop holes in legislations which
are required to overcome by the management of Department of health such as providing
radiation protective equipments to doctors and other health care professional staff in order to
protect themselves from harmful radiation excreted by X-Ray machines, etc.
 Code of Conduct/Ethics: The management of Department of health in Australia developed a
systematic and efficient code of conduct and established ethical work practices in the
organisation (Enticott, and et.al., 2015). It provides a suitable and precise framework and
guideline to every employee on the basis of which they must conduct their particular work
practices. The codes are determined by the NSW health code of conduct in which
organisation aim to promote a positive work environment, demonstrate honesty and
integrity, acting professionally and ethically, etc.
2) Outlining current requirements under the enabling act for compliance specific to the workplace
of Grafton Base Hospital, New South Wales is provided below:
 Work Health and Safety Act 2011: The main object of this Act is to provide for a balanced
and nationally consistent framework to secure the health and safety of workers and
workplaces by protecting workers from harm, providing for fair and effective workplace
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PSPLEG003 Report Template

(Noel and Babor, 2017Pate and et.al., 2015). Department of Health in Australia needs to
formulate effective policies in order to improve the work place health and safety legislation
implemented in various hospitals in the country.

 The Equal Opportunity Act 1984: The equal opportunity act 1984 proposed that every
employee may be provided with equal opportunity in the organisation (Smiddy, O'Connell
and Creedon, 2015). In short, it encouraged the identification and elimination of
discrimination, harassment and victimisation faced by any employee working in the
organisation. Department of Health requires complying with this act effectively in order to
eradicate the issues regarding discrimination faced by employees in the organisation.
3) Requirement and procedure to exercise discretion in the organisation is provided below:
Administrative decisions often include the exercise of discretion. The Department of Health
should be follow the discretion in the organisation in order to possess the power of decision making
to improve its performance and efficiency (Tong and et.al., 2015). For the agency, decision making,
legislation specifically provides the lawful authority for action to be taken and decision to be made.
Discretion exists when the decision-maker has the power to make a choice about whether to act or
not act, to approve or not approve, or to approve with conditions. Legislation often compels a
decision-maker to act in a particular way. Where the words ‘shall’ or ‘must’ are used in legislation,
there is usually no discretion available to the decision-maker. The role of the decision-maker is to
make a judgement taking into account all relevant information. The decision making power enables
the management of the agency to make the correct and right decision at right time which aid in
preventing any future uncertainty.
 Process by which The Department of Health can exercise discretionary powers:
 Act in good faith and for appropriate motives.
 All the legislative procedures must be followed.
 Focus on relevant tasks and avoid the irrelevant ones.
 Acting reasonably on reasonable grounds.
 Decisions must be based on supporting evidences.
 Important matters must be considers and matters of no importance must be ignores.
 Giving proper consideration to the merits of cases.
 Exercising the discretion independently and not under the dictation of any third party.
4) Ways by which one can encourage other to identify and obtain advice on apparently conflicting
legislative requirements:
Must refers to impose legal obligations on readers. It means to make something mandatory. May
means that legal obligations are not mandatory and completely optional.
 By providing brief education about the laws which are applied in the organization and which
are legislated by the government of the country.
 By taking legal advice from lawyer or legal entity regarding laws which are meant to be
follow and laws which are not meant to be follows.
 By conducting induction and orientation training which provide the details of rules which
are required to be followed.
5) Meaning of equal employment opportunities, equity and diversity
 Equal opportunity: Equal opportunity means all the employees working in the Department
of Health must be treated equally and identically (Roberts and et.al., 2014). The concept of
equal opportunities is a broadly used phrase which promotes the idea that everyone in
working in the organisation must have equal chance to apply and be selected for the post.
For this Equal Opportunity Act was proposed in the legislation of Australia in 1984, which

encourages the identification and eradication of discrimination, sexual harassment and
victimisation activities occurred at workplace. The legislation further improved and
proposed again in 2010 with new transformations.
 Equity and Diversity: Workforce diversity means different types, culture, civilisation,
religion of people working in the organisation for one common purpose, i.e. to accomplish
the organisational goals and objectives (Thompson, Ravindran and Nicosia, 2015). Equity
and Diversity are the principles of legislation which are mandatory for an organisation to
follow in order to eliminate the organisational issues regarding discriminations, harassments,
etc.
6) Ways by which Environmental and occupational health and safety procedures applied in the
Department of Health:
 In order to protect employees and employers working in the organisation from
various hazards and troubles, implementation of policies regarding environmental and
occupational health and safety is very essential. The ways through which environmental and
occupational health and safety procedures can be applied in the Department of Health are
provided below:
 Resolving issues related with work health and safety (World Health Organization, 2015).
For example, Doctors working in highly radiated areas without wearing protecting
equipments, or nurses working in intensive care units without using proper protection
masks. By applying effective policies of environmental and occupational health and safety
like work health and safety act 2011, these issues can be easily overcome.
 Taking advice from workers and involving them in order to improve the standard of
environmental health and safety in the organisation. Workers who faced troubles can
provide precise advice relating with the implementation of new technique or method to
overcome the issues. In this way, they will also be encouraged in the procedure of
occupational and environmental health and safety.
 Supervision of health of workers and conditions of workplace in order to acquire
information regarding the health and safety of employees and workplace conditions (World
Health Organization, 2016). This will assist the management to get ensured about the
transformation to be made in compliance with the Work Health and Safety Act 2011.
 Providing information and training to the employees as per the sections and amendments
made in the Occupational Health and Safety act. This step will help the employee to tackle
the problem and issues effectively and efficiently.
7) Three possible inadequacies of procedure which may contribute to non-compliance:
The three possible inadequacies in procedures of The Department of Health which
contributes towards non compliance are provided below:
 Counselling: Inadequacies of procedure in providing effective counselling to employees
leads to non compliance of legislation in The Department of Health.
 Disciplinary actions: Employees not following rules and policies as per prescribed
legislation is the major issue faced by the Department of Health which leads to non
compliance of laws.
 Demotion: Employee found in any activity which is not related with the organisation
business and which violets the rules and regulations are imminently demoted from their

current post without any notice. Thus, it leads to contribution towards non compliance of
legislation.
8) Identification of relevant of conducts/ethics in The Department of Health with their importance
are provided below:
 Promote a positive work environment: It is very important for an organisation to promote
positive work environment (Smith and Lee, 2015). This can be done by establishing
efficient corporate governance body and formulating effective practices that leads to
positive corporate culture. It helps in increase in motivation of employees and increase the
reputation of organisation.
 Demonstrating honesty and integrity: By demonstrating honesty and integrity, an
organisation aim to increase its goodwill. It is very important to demonstrate honesty and
integrity for organisation in order to improve the overall performance and establishing
precise ethical framework in the organisation.
 Using official resources lawfully: It is very important for an organisation to use
organisational resources lawfully and efficiently. It will help the management to avoid any
legal trouble and problems. It will also help growth and development of organisation
reputation.
 Equally treatment of patient: Avoiding discrimination practices at the workplace and
addressing each and every patient issues effectively and equally.
9) The consequences of non compliance with four examples are provided below:
The consequences of non compliance are very serious and penalties are imposed on not following
rules and legislation prescribed by the law of Australia. The Department of Health consequence of
non compliance includes:
For Individuals
 Transfer: Employees who breaks rules and does not follow the laws prescribed by the
organisation will immediately transferred from their position. For example, manager of The
Department of Health was transferred as he was doing personal work at working hours.
 Fines and Penalties: On the spot fines will be imposed in case of non-compliance of
legislation by any employee and employer (Enticott, and et.al., 2015). For Example, staff
members were not performing task and passing time by doing irrelevant activities. Severe
fines and penalties were imposed on them.
 Demotion: For non-compliance of legislation, employees will get demoted to their previous
post. For example, an executive of The Department of Health got demotion after his team
complained about his inappropriate behaviour.
 Dismissal: Employees will be terminated without any prior notice if they found in any
illegal activities which damage the reputation of organisation. For example, a worker got
terminated from his job after he caught taking bribes from customers in The Department of
Health.
 Legal Liability: Legal action can be made by the authorities of the hospital if employees
found to be guilty of non-compliance of legal legislation.
Conclusion
From the above compliance report, it can be understood that it is very important for an
organisation to follow the prescribed rules and regulation at workplace. From this context, all the
legislation and acts such as workplace, workplace health and safety, equal employment opportunity,

equity and diversity principles that are necessary for the organisation to comply is described and
explained in the report effectively and efficiently.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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in refugee source countries: an epidemiological logistic regression study in a Medicare Local
region in Australia. Australian journal of primary health, 21(3), pp.286-292.
Noel, J.K. and Babor, T.F., 2017. Does industry self‐regulation protect young people from exposure
to alcohol marketing? A review of compliance and complaint studies. Addiction, 112(S1),
pp.51-56.
Pate, R.R. and et.al.,., 2015. Prevalence of compliance with a new physical activity guideline for
preschool-age children. Childhood Obesity, 11(4), pp.415-420.
Roberts, M. and et.al., 2014. Children's exposure to food advertising: An analysis of the
effectiveness of self‐regulatory codes in Australia. Nutrition & dietetics, 71(1), pp.35-40.
Sinclair, C.A., Makin, J.K., Tang, A., Brozek, I. and Rock, V., 2014. The role of public health
advocacy in achieving an outright ban on commercial tanning beds in Australia. American
journal of public health, 104(2), pp.e7-e9.
Smiddy, M.P., O'Connell, R. and Creedon, S.A., 2015. Systematic qualitative literature review of
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Thompson, N., Ravindran, R. and Nicosia, S., 2015. Government data does not mean data
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Tong, A. and et.al.,., 2015. Research priorities in CKD: report of a national workshop conducted in
Australia. American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 66(2), pp.212-222.
World Health Organization, 2015. WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic 2015: raising taxes
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World Health Organization, 2016. WHO Expert Committee on Specifications for Pharmaceutical
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