Work Health and Safety (WHS) Report: Case Study Analysis

This report analyzes a Work Health and Safety (WHS) case study, specifically Barnett v Harris Scarfe Australia Pty Ltd [2007], examining the roles and responsibilities under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA). The report delves into issues such as the responsibilities of employers and wor...Read More

Running head: WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
Work Health and Safety (WHS)
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
Table of Contents
Issue 1..............................................................................................................................................2
Issue 2..............................................................................................................................................3
Issue 3..............................................................................................................................................5
Issue 4..............................................................................................................................................6
Issue 5..............................................................................................................................................8
Issue 6..............................................................................................................................................9
Reference List................................................................................................................................10

2WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
Issue 1
In the given case Barnett v Harris Scarfe Australia Pty Ltd [2007], the people who had a
fundamental role to play were the operator of the trolley and the management of the company.
According to section 5 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA) (WHS), a person who
conducts an undertaking or a business alone or with others shall be considered as a person
conducting a business or an undertaking under this Act (Work and Health Safety Act (SA)
2012). As per section 7 of the Act, the term ‘worker’ includes an employee, contractor or
subcontractor, a trainee, student gaining work experience or a volunteer (Xiang et al. 2014). The
person who is responsible for conducting business or undertaking is also considered as a worker
if such person carries out any work in the undertaking or business as an individual.
As per section 18 of the Act, the employers and the employee or the operator in this case,
had been imposed with the duties to ensure health and safety within the workplace. They are
responsible for ensuring such health and safety that was reasonable for them to exercise at any
particular time (Chmiel et al. 2017). According to section 20 of the Act, persons who are
responsible for control or management of a Harris Scarfe Australia, are obligated to ensure
health and safety of the workplace (Work and Health Safety Act (SA) 2012). It is the
responsibility of the persons and management to ensure that the means of exiting and entering
the workplace or anything arising from the workplace must not result in risks with respect to the
safety and health of any person as far as it is practicable for them to do the same.
The management is not only responsible for ensuring safety and health of the employees or
the workers of the organization but is also accountable for injuries that might result from
anything that arises from the workplace (Cooper and Quick 2017). According to section 28 of

3WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
the Act, a worker is required to take reasonable care for his own safety and health care. The
operator was also responsible for ensuring the health and safety of the other persons within the
workplace including the customers who were present within the workplace.
The worker should ensure that his conduct or omission does not have any adverse impact on
the health and safety of other persons within the workplace by complying with the reasonable
policy and procedures of the organization that is applicable for the workers. According to
section 29 of the Act, the other persons who are not conferred with any duty within the
workplace must also take reasonable care to ensure his or her own health and safety and prohibit
from conducting in a way that may have an adverse impact upon the other persons (Shea et al.
2016).
Issue 2
Essential elements of the WHS Management system
A system which deals with the various management activities such as organizational
structure, responsibilities, planning activities, resources and processes that are used to develop
and implement, review and maintain the OHS [WHS] policy is known as the OHS WHS
Management System. The management system aims at improving the WHS performance by
entailing practices, processes and activities that are in compliance with the law.
The OHS management system is in compliance with the AS/NZS 4804 that provides
performance standards for the systems, supporting and principle techniques. The most essential
elements that must be present in the management system include the following:

4WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
 Commitment and policy- an organization must define its WHS policy and commit
sufficient resources ensuring the success of management system;
 planning- an effective planning that addresses the resources and responsibilities required
to achieve the policy objectives and statement;
 implementation- an effective implementation of the planned mechanisms to attain the
policy objectives of the organization;
 Measurement and assessment- the use of performance indicators is useful in monitoring
reviewing and evaluating the performance of the organization in accordance with the
objectives, policy and targets. It is also important to implement corrective action and to
identify the improvement.
 review and improvement of the management systems- the organization must review and
strive to make continuous improvements in the organizational strategies;
In the given case, the Logistics Manager of Harris Scarfe’s confessed that there were no
procedures and effective polices with respect to stock handling and the movement procedure of
the same. The organization lacked proper planning with respect to the policies and commitments
to ensure performance of the organization (Baum 2016). The organization did not focus on
implementing effective mechanism and processes to ensure health and safety of the workers and
other persons who are not workers within the workplace such as the customers.
They failed to make sure that maneuvering the loaded stock trolleys can be safely operated
while public were present within the workplace (Haimes 2015). Further, the employees were not
provided with adequate training or instructions with respect to the loading and maneuvering of
the stock trolleys throughout the store. The organization lacked proper assessment and
measurement procedures as well, which must be present to assess and review the performance of

5WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
the workers. Consequently, in the absence of such adequate measurement and assessment
procedures, the organization failed to review whether the stock trolleys were operating safely
without giving rise to any risk of harm that may be caused to any worker or any other person
within the workplace (Lam 2014). The trolleys were being overloaded with stocks to the extent
that it was blocking the front view of the operator. It was due to the overloading of the trolley
that had resulted in the incident where Mrs. Harvey was injured.
Issue 3
Consultation is a two-way process between the management and the workers where they
communicate with the each other regarding any issues that they face within the organization. The
workers usually communicate about the issues that they face within the organization and the
employers or the health and Safety representative consult with the employees about their
concerns and the procedures or processes that should be used to address such issues.
According to section 47 of the WHS Act, the Person controlling business undertaking
(PCBU) must consult the workers who are entitled to carry out work for the PCBU and are likely
to have direct impact of any matter with respect to health and safety in workplace. The
procedures of consultation that has been agreed by the workers for consultation, the consultation
shall be done in accordance with such procedures. Section 48 of the WHS Act states the nature
of consultation to be given to the workers. The workers must be provided with information that
is relevant to the health and safety of the workplace, the workers are given adequate opportunity
to raise any issues or express their views with respect to any health, and safety related matter
within the workplace. This is an effective consultation procedure for any organization as it

6WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
enables the employees to take active participation in the decision-making process of the
organization.
This consultation procedure is also effective because it also permits the employers to
consider the views of the workers and they are provided with advice regarding the consequence
of the consultation within due time. Section 48(2) of the WHS Act states that if the health and
safety representative consults with the workers, they must do so while identifying the hazards.
They may be consulted while proposing changes that may affect the WHS workers.
In the given scenario, the most suited form of consultation procedure would have been
the consultation process involving Health and Safety Representative. This procedure would have
been effective in the absence of the adequate training of the employees or the other workers. The
Health and safety representative would have discussed about the risks and the hazards that may
arise from the stock trolleys while the workers use them when there is public within the
workplace (Glendon, Clarke and McKenna 2016). The representatives would have informed
them about any changes proposed to minimize such risks and ensured their health and safety.
The operator would have been provided with information that the trolley should not be
overloaded to block the sight of the operator. Further, the organization did not monitor the
trolleys and neither assesses the risk of harm that may arise from overloading of the trolleys and
using them while there are public within the workplace.
Issue 4
Identification of risk Assessment of risk Control of Risk
overloading of trolleys Blocked the line of sight of the
operator
Proper training and clear signs for
not overloading the trolley and

7WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
maneuvering of trolleys in public
areas
Trolley used while customers
were present in the store
Risk of injury likely to be caused
to the customers as was caused to
the customers
Installation of warning signs or
setting up of entry permits to
operate within the work systems
No policies and procedures for
stock handling
The operators dealing with stock
handling would be cause injuries
to the customers
Effective policies and procedures
with respect to such stock
handling should be present within
the workplace
Table 1: Risk Assessment
(Source: created by author)
As per regulation 34 of the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2012 (SA), it was
important to identify the hazards that was present within the workplace of Harris Scarfe
Australia, and it is important to assess such risks to evaluate an effective risk control with a view
to minimize or eliminate the risk. However, the organization admitted that there were no policies
and procedures within the organization and risk assessment of the hazards were not conducted
which prevented the company from identifying the risk of overloading and the maneuvering of
the truck when there were public on the floor.
Section 36 of the Regulation states that the assessed risks may be controlled either by
eliminating, substituting, isolating, engineering, using of administrative and personal protective
equipment. Under the circumstances of the case, the most appropriate way of controlling the risk
arising from the use of stock trolleys is the use of administrative control measures, which
includes the following measures:

8WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
 setting up of entry permits for the operation of the trolleys be it loading of stocks or
maneuvering of the trolleys, that is, they should be used before the customers arrive at the
store;
 warnings or signs that would infirm the customers and other workers as well about the
maneuvering of the trolleys in case it is necessary to be operated while the customers are
on the store floor;
 adequate training should have been provided to the operators of the trolleys regarding the
loading and maneuvering the trolleys while there is public in the store.
 Pre-start checks should be commenced before operating the trolley system.
If these measures are implemented effectively in the organization, it is expected that similar
incidents shall not take place within the organization in the future.
Issue 5
The company should include risk register for recording risks and action planning which
would enable the management to monitor and review whether the control measures are being
used with due diligence to prevent any injury within the workplace. Further, workplace
inspection, internal audit should be conducted to ensure the control tools are being implemented
effectively. Furthermore, consultation with the employees by the Health and safety
representatives would enhance communication with the employees; besides, monitoring of
hazard reports shall also enable the organization to monitor and review the compliance of the
organization with the WHS legislation in ensuring health and safety of the employees.

9WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
Issue 6
From the case, it can be inferred that effective policy, commitments and adequate training
of employees with respect to operation of any systems and machines within the organization is
mandatory. Similarly, it is equally important for any organization to conduct risk assessments to
identify the hazards and devise appropriate control and monitoring measures to ensure
compliance of the organization with such policies and procedures to ensure health and safety
within the organizational workplace. While ensuring safety and health, it is imperative to take
into consideration the following relevant matters, which are as follows:
 the risk or hazard that is likely to take place within the workplace;
 the extent of harm that might result from such risk or harm;
 the knowledge possessed by any concerned person regarding the risks or the hazard and
ways of eliminating or reducing such hazard or risks;

10WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS)
Reference List
Barnett v Harris Scarfe Australia Pty Ltd [2007] SAIRC 54
Baum, F., 2016. The new public health (No. Ed. 4). Oxford University Press.
Chmiel, N., Fraccaroli, F. and Sverke, M. eds., 2017. An Introduction to Work and
Organizational Psychology: An International Perspective. John Wiley & Sons.
Cooper, C.L. and Quick, J.C. eds., 2017. The Handbook of Stress and Health: A Guide to
Research and Practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Glendon, A.I., Clarke, S. and McKenna, E., 2016. Human safety and risk management. Crc
Press.
Haimes, Y.Y., 2015. Risk modeling, assessment, and management. John Wiley & Sons.
Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., 2014. Business process management. Routledge.
Lam, J., 2014. Enterprise risk management: from incentives to controls. John Wiley & Sons.
Lao, J., Hansen, A., Nitschke, M., Hanson-Easey, S. and Pisaniello, D., 2016. Working smart: an
exploration of council workers’ experiences and perceptions of heat in Adelaide, South
Australia. Safety science, 82, pp.228-235.
Quinlan, M., Bohle, P. and Rawlings-Way, O., 2015. Health and safety of homecare workers
engaged by temporary employment agencies. Journal of Industrial Relations, 57(1), pp.94-114.

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Sekendiz, B., Gray, S. E., Norton, K., Keyzer, P., Dietrich, J., Eickhoff-Shemek, J. M., & Finch,
C. (2016). Safety alert for treadmills in health & fitness facilities in Australia: Results from a
pilot study of an observational audit tool. Journal of Fitness Research, 5(1), 24.
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.
The Work and Health Safety Act 2012 (SA)
The Work and Health Safety Regulations (SA)
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.