Managing People at Work Essay: Health and Safety in Australia

This essay delves into the complexities of managing people at work, specifically focusing on workplace health and safety (WHS) within Australian organizations. It examines the current WHS procedures, legal frameworks, and various challenges faced by employees, including bullying, discrimination, and work-life imbalance. The essay highlights the legal responsibilities of employers in providing a safe work environment and addresses issues such as sexual harassment and its impact on employee morale and productivity. Furthermore, it analyzes the main complexities in the Australian workplace, such as non-compliance with safety codes and increasing incidents of workplace violence. The essay proposes strategies to improve occupational health and safety laws, emphasizing the importance of employer understanding, regular analysis, and the implementation of effective health and safety programs. It also stresses the need for authorities to enforce WHS legislation and the importance of addressing the specific requirements of all employees, especially female workers, to foster a positive and productive work environment. The conclusion emphasizes the need for effective WHS practices to meet employee demands, reduce discrimination, and maintain long-term organizational success.

Running head: MANAGING PEOPLE AT WORK
Managing People at Work
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
The essay helps in analysing the different kind of complexities in managing the health
and safety in Australian organizations. The analysis is required to be done on the
occupational health and safety procedures that has been adopted by the organizations in
Australia to resolve such issues appropriately. The different kind of complexities in the
workplace health and safety in different organizations that has been found in different articles
of various organizations in Australia.
The main purpose of the essay is to manage the different complexities in the
Australian organizations with implementation of different strategies. The importance of the
occupational safety at the workplace is essential in nature as to improve the safety procedures
in the organizations. Proper kind of analysis is required to be done wherein this will include
the procedures that can be taken by employer to resolve the issues and maintain accurate
workplace health and safety among the employees in different companies.
Workplace Health and Safety in Australian Organizations
Workplace Health and Safety is often referred to as Occupational Health and Safety
that includes assessment and involvement along with mitigation of the different kind of risks
that may impact the safety, welfare along with health of the different individuals in the
organizations in Australia. Furthermore, it has been seen that there are different kind of laws
that differ in different Australian territories and states.
Furthermore, Xiang et al. (2014) has commented that management of the health safety
and workplace is essential in nature in different kind of organizations in Australia as all the
employees to prevent them from any kind of injury or illness. At regular kind of intervals,
health and safety conditions of the workers has to be measured along with providing training
to the employees in order to control the risks involved in it as well.

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There are different articles wherein it has been seen that there is workplace violence
that has been caused to the workers working in different organizations in Australia (Phillips
et al. 2015). There has been different instances of bullying and discrimination among the
workers because of the sex, age and religion of the individuals in the organizations. Proper
legislative means for controlling bullying is required to be adopted by the employers in the
organization to confront the bullying at the workplace. Furthermore, it is the crucial legal
responsibility of the employers of the Australian organizations to provide safe kind of
workplace to the employees who are employed under them (Ackermann et al. 2014).
It is the entire responsibility of the employer to take care of the different kind of
issues faced by employees and solve them appropriately. There can be issues related to
discrimination caused to the employees and this is affecting the trust and they are losing their
morale to perform the tasks. In different kind of Australian workplaces, it has been seen that
there are issues related to improper work life balance in the workplace. Lastly, there are
different kind of incidents that has been taken place in the organizations that has reduced the
morale of employees and there are individuals who committed suicide and no measures are
taken by companies to reduce such issues (Healy et al. 2016).
Main Complexities in Australian Workplace
In this particular scenario, from different articles and journals it has been seen that
there are many complexities in the workplace in Australia. The main complexity that has
been found in the workplace is the bullying of the individuals along with discrimination
among the employees as well (Terry et al. 2015). It has been noticed that only 13% of the
organizations comply with the safe work Australia’s code of practice on first aid
(SmartCompany, 2018). Furthermore, there has been different kind of other sexual

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harassment cases among the female employees in the organizations in which nine out of ten
employees are victims of sexual harassment crimes.
These kinds of issues are the most crucial wherein the number of suicides are
increasing in number and this is increasing the risks among the employees to work in
different organizations in Australia as well (Shea et al. 2016). There is an article that has been
released wherein it seen that Woolworths Supermarket based in Australia was ordered to pay
$230,000 in the form of compensation to the injured worker after the four year long legal
battle (SmartCompany, 2018). From this article, it has been seen that the employers in the
organizations do not take any such responsibility of reducing the workplace issues and this is
impacting the welfare of the employees in a negative manner as well.
The other article that has been released is relating to the employee sexual harassment
in the organizations. It has been noticed that the survey that has been taken under the trade
union United Voice, more than 86% of the female employees are left unsafe in their
workplaces and this is creating unsafe environment for the workers who are female in the
Australian workplace (The Conversation, 2018). From the article, it has been noticed that out
of 300 workers in the hospitality industry, nine out of ten workers have experienced sexual
harassment in the workplace.
From such kind of scenarios, it can be analysed that there are different kind of
workplace health and safety issues faced by the different workers ineffectively and the
employers are not taking any proper responsibility to avoid such issues successfully as well.
The different kind of issues in the workplace has been increasing in the present scenario at a
rapid speed (Peel et al. 2016). Furthermore, it has been recorded that the female employees
are not receiving any kind of huge support from the different employers of their respective
organisations as well.

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Due to such kind of issues in the workplaces in Australia, the productivity of the
employees is decreasing and this is causing the employees to commit suicide among the
workers due to such kind of issues in the health and safety conditions provided at the
workplace. Lastly, the employers are not taking any necessary steps in managing the issues
that are faced by the employees and this is affecting the morale of the employees as well.
Ways to improve the occupational health and safety laws in Australian Companies
The different employers of the organizations in Australia needs to understand the
issues faced by the different organizations in an operative manner. Proper analysis is required
to be done by different companies in Australia to improve the different kind of health and
safety issues faced by the employees. The workplace health and safety are essential in nature
in different organizations as this is one of the crucial legal requirements in the different
companies (Arnetz et al. 2015).
It helps in maintaining long term success of the organizations that will assist the
companies in Australia to retain the staffs, maximise the productivity of the employees and
minimize the illness among the injury in the workplace. It is the duty of the employer in
different companies to meet the legal obligations along with responsibilities of the employers
as well in the organizations. The health and safety programs in companies are essential in
preventing the injury along with illness in workplace. Proper enhancement of the different
kind of strategies is required to be analysed by the employer in the Australian organizations
to meet the different demands of the employees.
The programs of health and safety will help employees and employer to understand
the potential kind of hazards on daily basis. The operative kind of health and safety programs
involve the different workers in developing the policies and procedures related to WHS. In
Australia, the different other authorities have responsibilities in enforcement of the

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WHS/OHS legislations. The pocket OHS helps the companies in adhering with the
regulations of the Australian legislations rules and laws to understand the issues faced by
them and solve them effectively.
Furthermore, the employers of the different companies need to take care of the
different requirements of the female workers in the organization wherein the safety of the
women or female employees are to be taken care of successfully (Thrasher et al. 2016). The
managing of the individuals at work is required in all the organizations as this boosts the
morale of the employees and solve the queries appropriately. Lastly, the compensation plans
have to be adopted by the employer to manage the employees effectually with the help of the
different labour and industrial relations.
The companies in Australia have to understand and analyse the issues in the
workplace that are commonly faced by the employees. The employer needs to jot down the
different difficulties of the employees and solve them in such a manner that this reduces the
complexity in the organizations as well.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that effective workplace health and safety is essential
in order to meet the different demands of the employees in the different Australian
companies. It has been noticed that there are complexities in the WHS of Australian
companies, however they are reduced with implementation of proper strategies and the
companies are successful in retaining the employees in the organization as well. Finally, the
companies and employers created cordial relationship with all employees and this reduced
discrimination among employees as well.

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