Comprehensive Report: Improving the WHS Management System at TTF

This report examines the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Management System at Talon Textile Fasteners (TTF), identifying significant deficiencies and proposing comprehensive solutions. The analysis reveals multiple breaches of the WHS Act, including a lack of a dedicated WHS executive, abse...Read More

RUNNING HEAD: Work Health and Safety Management System
Work Health and Safety Management System of TTF
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A work health and safety management system refers to the methodology used by
an entity to incorporate the Work Health and Safety requirements and obligations in the
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Work Health and Safety Management System
business environment. It provides an aggressive and systematic approach (Baicker,
Cutler, & Song, 2010).
Talon Textile Fasteners has engaged in practices that are in violation of the Work
Health and Safety Act. Any breach of the act could lead to legal consequences and
penalties. Such cases may be categorized into the breach of the Work Health and
Safety Act with recklessness as to the risk of death, serious injury or illness, breach of
the activities involving the risk of death, serious injury or even death without
recklessness and other breaches of health and safety duties ( Brauer, 2016). The
enforcement of health and safety management systems ultimately lies in the
management. The system utilizes the strength of management and the rest of the staff
for effective operation. Some of the breaches include the failure to appoint someone at
the executive level to be in charge of health and safety duties and facilitate
development, implementation, accountability, enforcement, performance measures and
regular review of performance. There is no clear Healthy and Safety internal policies at
TTF and lack a well-structured functional Health and Safety Committee. TTF has no
existing health and safety strategies the risks such as injuries caused by fixing the
springs to the pegs. The induction team fails to incorporate WHS duties into the
induction process and there is no clear understanding of risk management protocols.
Poor communication and reporting relationship in the organization has derailed the
WHS practices evidenced by the fact that WHS documents are inaccessible and only
exist in the paper.
The job description design fails to include WHS duties, as a result, Nigel
Techner the CIO neglects such duties and the sales team lack awareness of the
measures to take in case of an accident. TTF staff has failed to avail safety and health
information to its clients and neglected their WHS responsibility as the front office. Such
include cases of doors closing on customers and clients hitting themselves on displays.
The appropriate risk assessment has not been incorporated into the system and thus no
periodic improvements have been done. Therefore the staffs are complaining of
excessive noise from the machines, sore neck and back pain because of inconvenient
typing desks. Apparently, it is clear that the machines have never been checked in over
two years’ time.
It is important to address the issues raised for compliance with WHS act and
effective performance of TTF. The Health and Safety committee has to be empowered,
well-structured and represented at the management level by a risk management
executive. A risk assessment program has to be launched in conjunction with well
communicated WHS policies that are to be adhered to by all members of staff. The job
design and description should incorporate the work health and safety responsibilities of
each staff and WHS protocol should be part of the induction process. (Hollnagel, 2018).
This would make it easy to appraise the staff on Work Health and Safety standards. It is
highly recommendable that Health and Safety training should be conducted for the
entire TTF workforce. A safe and healthy culture should be adopted by the sales team
by ensuring safe working hours. Appropriate precautions offered to TTF clients would
highly minimize the risk of injury.

Work Health and Safety Management System
In order to communicate WHS policies effectively, every member of the TTF task
force should be informed of the organization’s safety principles, philosophy and the
structure and systems that deliver the WHS policy. It is more important to ensure that
each staff knows their specific role in the policy and is aware of the risks involved in the
job and their control mechanisms. The emergency protocol should be availed to all staff
members. The duty holder absent include a risk manager who is to act as a
representative in the executive as well as a production department representative in the
risk assessment committee. For safety measures, it would be prudent to hire a sales
driver since it is risky to drive after a long day’s work in the field. A well-trained safety
and health advisor is needed. The recruitment process of the human resource will have
a financial impact in terms of the increased wage bill but the overall effect is reduced
production cost due to relatively higher efficiency (Noe, et al, 2017).The management
present has the responsibility of enforcing health and safety standards and it is the
obligation of the health and safety committee to develop safety principles, train the rest
of the staff and establish period reviews of performance. However, it should be noted
that all the staff members have a responsibility in the WHS program and collaboration is
needed to ensure a safe and healthy work environment (Vinodkumar, & Bhasi, 2010).
In the existing system, there are inadequacies in hazard control. Hazard control
works to minimize the potential harm that may be caused. Based on the hierarchy of
control measures, it would be more effective to use engineering controls to fix the doors
so that they may not close on the clients and use proximity guarding to minimize the risk
of a client hitting themselves on the displays. Elimination of hazard control would be
effective in removing preventing the headaches by the elimination of noise from the
machines. The staff should use protective equipment as well to minimize the risk of
harm when dealing with the machines. TTF has the challenge of identifying patterns of
work-related injury and damage of property. A work Health and Safety Incident report
can help solve the problem. A WHS incident report is an official document that is used
to record all work-related injuries, accident and property damage. The Incident report
would be used to take a record of injuries, accident and any uncommon situations at
work (Mahajan, 2010). This would also help in the evaluation of the performance of the
safety strategies in place.
In summary, the TTF Health and Safety should be capable of controlling and
disseminating up to date information to the workforce, incorporate a safety inspection
checklist, risk assessments, and emergency response program. There have to be an
internal audit schedule and performance measures.

Work Health and Safety Management System
References
Baicker, K., Cutler, D., & Song, Z. (2010). Workplace wellness programs can generate
savings. Health affairs, 29(2), 304-311.
Brauer, R. L. (2016). Safety and health for engineers. John Wiley & Sons.
Hollnagel, E. (2018). Safety-I and safety-II: the past and future of safety management.
CRC Press.
Mahajan, R. P. (2010). Critical incident reporting and learning. British journal of
anaesthesia, 105(1), 69-75.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Vinodkumar, M. N., & Bhasi, M. (2010). Safety management practices and safety
behaviour: Assessing the mediating role of safety knowledge and
motivation. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 42(6), 2082-2093.