Analyzing Workplace Safety: A Case Study on WHS Law Compliance

This case study delves into a scenario involving two neighboring warehouses and a fatal incident to analyze compliance with Occupational Health and Safety (WHS) laws. It identifies issues such as the preventability of the fire and subsequent death through proper workplace safety programs, and whether the company implemented adequate procedures for maintaining a safe work environment. The analysis applies Model WHS laws, including regulations for confined spaces and ventilation, to the given facts, highlighting the company's failure to maintain a safe exterior and address ventilation issues. It further assesses the responsibility of stakeholders in ensuring workplace safety, concluding that negligence and failure to address safety concerns contributed to the incident. The case study emphasizes the importance of implementing and maintaining a robust workplace health and safety program to prevent future incidents and ensure employee well-being. Desklib offers a variety of similar case studies and resources for students.

Running head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY LAW
Occupational Health and Safety Law
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Authors Note:

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Contents
Part A:..............................................................................................................................................2
Issue:............................................................................................................................................2
Rules:...........................................................................................................................................2
Application:.................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion:..................................................................................................................................4
Part B:..............................................................................................................................................5
Issue:............................................................................................................................................5
Rules:...........................................................................................................................................5
Application:.................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:..................................................................................................................................7
References:......................................................................................................................................8

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Part A:
It is important to comply with the workplace health and safety requirements to provide a
suitable and conducive work environment for the workers and employees in the workplace.
Taking into consideration the facts of the case a detailed discussion on the issue, rules,
application and conclusion shall be made here.
Issue:
The issue here is multiple and not limited to one. Following issues have been identified from the
facts provided about the 2 neighbouring warehouses on St Valentines Street.
I. Can the fire and the subsequent death of Johnny Torrid could have been prevented by
implementing a proper workplace health and safety program in place?
II. Has the Chicago Outfit Limited (the Outfit) implemented proper procedures in place to keep
the warehouse in proper condition to ensure safe and healthy work environment for the
workers?
Rules:
Safe Work Australia developed set of laws and guidelines in 2011 to be followed at the
workplace to provide appropriate physical environment at the workplace. These laws are known
as model WHS laws to be complied by the employers and employees to ensure suitable
workplace environment for the health and safety of the workers. The Model WHS laws include
model WHS act, Model WHS Regulations and Model code of practice (Sellens et. al. 2018).
Model Code of practice for confined space provides detailed rules and regulations to be followed
by the employer to maintain proper ventilation and atmosphere in such small spaces. Since often
no work is conducted is such spaces an organization tends to ignore the requirements of

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maintaining the proper workplace environment in such places (Bong et. al. 2015). The employers
are under obligation to ensure that confined places have appropriate ventilation facilities as often
such places lack ventilation. Lack of ventilation is a serious contravention with the WHS
requirements. Thus, as per the Model Code of practice for confined spaces the employer should
take all necessary steps to ensure that there is no ventilation problem with the confined space
(Australia, 2016). As per the model law employers are under obligation to ensure there is no
scope of air contamination in the work places including confined spaces. Places within
warehouses which are not used on regular basis often have very poor ventilation system and such
places are a risk to the safety and security of the workers in the warehouses. It is of utmost
importance for the employers to take all necessary actions to ensure that the unused and confined
places within a warehouse or for that matter in any part of the work premises are properly
maintained (Xiang et. al. 2014). The model WHS law requires the employers to take all
necessary steps to minimize the risk of fire in the workplace including the confined spaces within
the work premises. In case an organization has such a place which is not often used then the
organization must ensure that such place is neatly and cleanly maintained regularly (McLinton
et. al. 2018).
Application:
As per the facts provided in the document it is quite clear that Chicago Outfit (the Outfit),
one of the two warehouses on St Valentines Street, does not have a standard policy to maintain
the workplace environment when it comes to keeping the exterior of the warehouse in proper
condition as per the model code of practice under WHS laws. In fact the instance where Johnny
Torrid, one of the employees of the Outfit, received a call from his immediate supervisor on
October 22, 2018 to clean up the exterior of the warehouse as there is going to be inspection of

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the warehouse made it clear that the warehouse lacks a proper plan to maintain the workplace
environment as per the WHS laws. Further the whole process where Johnny tries to remove the
garbage from the exterior all by himself further proves the lack of planning and procedures
within the warehouse to maintain the workplace environment (Shea et. al. 2016) .
The sight of lots of leave tattering to all parts of the exterior shows that the warehouse
does not have proper employee and workers to keep the exterior in proper working condition as
per the model workplace environment under WHS laws. The fact that drivers have the liberty to
drop card boxes all over the place is a clear indication that the warehouse does not have an
effective workplace environment policy. In fact the drainpipe under the shed is also not properly
maintained and cleaned on regular basis as there have been some build of rubbish in the
drainpipe (Chan-Mok, Caponecchia and Winder, 2014). The fact that there was no supervising of
the cleaning and removal work Johnny further hampered the workplace environment as it
allowed Johnny to misreport the work and activities taking place to maintain the exterior and
other parts of the warehouse which is not used regularly. As per the information the pile of boxes
which are dropped in the warehouse piles on till there is no place in the gap between the shed
and the Northern property. The lack of ventilation and oxygen facility in the Outfit property
resulted in huge fire breakout which resulted in the death of Johnny (Holt and Allen, 2015).
It is clear from that there is serious lack of control in maintenance of workplace
environment in the Outfit which cost the life of an employee.
Conclusion:
As per the above discussion it is clear that the authority responsible to maintain proper
workplace health and safety requirements in the workplace have failed comply with the

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requirements of model WHS laws in the country. The serious contraventions with the WHS
requirements contributed to the death of Johnny Torrid. It is an act of utmost irresponsibility on
the part of the management of the Outfit which cost the life of Johnny.
As a result the environment at the warehouse is not fully safe and healthy for the workers and
employees. Immediate corrective actions shall be taken by the authority to maintain proper
condition at the workplace within the warehouse with specific focus on keeping the exterior in
clean and proper condition to ensure safety and security to the workers.
The Outfit authority shall ensure that there is a standard program in place to keep the warehouse
in proper working condition to provide the workers and employees a safe and healthy workplace
environment. After formulation of a standard program the management of the warehouse must
ensure that it is properly implemented and to achieve that a workplace health and safety
supervisor shall be appointed to take cognizance of the workplace practices on regular basis to
maintain the workplace environment. The fire as well as the subsequent death of Johnny could
have been prevented by maintaining proper workplace environment within the warehouse.
Part B:
Issue:
The issue in this section is to determine the responsibility of Al Capone and Sunny Capone on
the inability to maintain appropriate workplace environment within the warehouse.
Rules:
As already mentioned earlier that model WHS laws require the employers to take all necessary
steps to provide to maintain standard workplace environment as mentioned in the model laws.
The health and safety of the workers are of utmost importance and must be given top most

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priority by the employers and management. Though employers are often not involve in the day to
day functioning of an organization but still WHS laws require the employers to ensure that the
workplace environment are proper for the workers and employees. The act holds employers of an
organization responsible in case the employers fail to maintain the workplace environment as
required for the safety and security of the workers. In case of a company which has a
management to conduct the day to day affairs, it is the management which is responsible to
maintain proper workplace environment for the workers to ensure that they are safe and secure
(Holt and Allen, 2015).
Ensuring proper ventilation within the workplace with proper oxygen facilities along with
necessary measures to deal with fire outbreaks are minimum requirements which must be there
within an organization. Regular verification of standard workplace environment policy is also
part of the overall responsibility of the owners and management of an organization.
Application:
In this case Al and Sunny are the 70% and 30% stakeholders of the Chicago Outfit
Limited. As per the facts it is not clear whether Al and Sunny are involved in the day to day
management of the warehouse. However, even if it is assumed that they are not involved in the
day to day management the fact that they have been ignorant to the continuous requests of
Johnny for safety and security at the workplace they are accountable for the irresponsible
behavior on their part. As per the facts Johnny has apparently sent 20 requests to both Al and
Sunny of which none give even a single reply (McLinton et. al. 2018).

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The fire that took the life of Johnny was mainly due to the irresponsibility of the
management and the employers of the warehouse as they failed to improve the workplace
environment to provide a safe and secure workplace environment for the workers.
Conclusion:
Taking into consideration the discussion above it would not be incorrect to say that Al
and Sunny have been extremely irresponsible in their behavior to provide a suitable workplace
environment within the Outfit. All necessary steps shall be taken immediately to improve the
working condition at the warehouse immediately to ensure that the environment is conducive and
suitable for the workers and employees to work safely in the warehouse.

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References:
Australia, S.W., 2016. National Safe Work Month is held in October each year and aims to
improve the awareness of work health and safety in the workplace and to encourage
discussion about safety at work by sharing positive workplace stories from across
Australia. LAMP, p.39.
Bong, S., Rameezdeen, R., Zuo, J., Li, R.Y.M. and Ye, G., 2015. The designer's role in
workplace health and safety in the construction industry: post-harmonized regulations in
South Australia. International Journal of Construction Management, 15(4), pp.276-287.
Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15623599.2015.1094850
[Accessed on 6 December 2018]
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.
Holt, A.S.J. and Allen, J., 2015. Principles of health and safety at work. Routledge.
McLinton, S.S., Loh, M.Y., Dollard, M.F., Tuckey, M.M., Idris, M.A. and Morton, S., 2018.
Benchmarking working conditions for health and safety in the frontline healthcare
industry: Perspectives from Australia and Malaysia. Journal of advanced nursing.
Sellens, E., Norris, J.M., Dhand, N.K., Heller, J., Hayes, L., Gidding, H.F., Willaby, H., Wood,
N. and Bosward, K.L., 2018. Willingness of veterinarians in Australia to recommend Q
fever vaccination in veterinary personnel: Implications for workplace health and safety
compliance. PloS one, 13(6), p.e0198421. Available at:

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http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0198421 [Accessed on 6
December 2018]
Shea, T., De Cieri, H., Donohue, R., Cooper, B. and Sheehan, C., 2016. Leading indicators of
occupational health and safety: An employee and workplace level validation
study. Safety science, 85, pp.293-304.
Xiang, J., Bi, P., Pisaniello, D. and Hansen, A., 2014. The impact of heatwaves on workers ׳
health and safety in Adelaide, South Australia. Environmental research, 133, pp.90-95.