BSBWHS501: Ensuring Workplace Health and Safety in Call Centre Merger

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of workplace health and safety (WHS) implementation in a call centre following a merger. It includes a detailed WHS policy outlining the organization's commitment to safety and the responsibilities of management and employees. The report describes an appropriate WHS management system, highlighting the importance of risk minimization and adherence to standards like AS4801 and AS4804. It identifies necessary financial and human resources for maintaining a viable WHS system across three shifts, including training equipment, risk management staff, and independent professionals. The report also explains a suitable consultation method in compliance with legislation, emphasizing communication between duty holders and workers. Furthermore, it presents three possible indicators for evaluating WHS performance: regular workplace inspections, hazard and incident reporting, and worker compensation claims. Finally, it includes an induction checklist for workers and discusses WHS training for managers.

Report on workplace health and Safety
Running Head: WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
0
Ensure a Safe Workplace
BSBWHS501
LA019818
7 / 1 1 / 2 0 1 8
ROUNAK SANATI

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
1
Contents
Work Health and Safety Policy.......................................................................................................2
WHS Management System..............................................................................................................4
Resources.........................................................................................................................................6
Consultation.....................................................................................................................................7
WHS performance...........................................................................................................................8
Induction Checklist For Workers...................................................................................................10
WHS training for managers...........................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................15
Appendix........................................................................................................................................18
Appendix 1 18

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
2
Work Health and Safety Policy
Mission
Mission of the created policy is to ensure a healthy and safe working environment for the
employees. Our workers are the valuable part of our organization, and we believe to secure them
with the proper safety measures.
Vision
To accomplish the vision of a safe and healthy work environment free of injuries, incidents, and
accidents.
Goals
Lead goal of this policy is to ensure that all the work activities are conducted safety within the
organization.
Policy Highlights
 This Policy is prepared according to the requirements of Work Health and Safety Act
2011 No 10 (herein after referred as Act).
 Inclusive points are prepared and developed within the provided framework of Work
Health and Safety Regulations, 2017.
 We are committed to ensure the safety of all employees coming in various shifts.
 We are accountable to develop a safe workplace.

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
3
 We are focusing on the development of activities in a manner that will be suitable and
protective for every employee.
 In addition to the management, we expect our employees to consider their own safety.
 This policy expects employees to follow all the requirements and to provide a good co-
operation in order to make the same a success.
 Responsibilities of Management as well workers are mentioned separately.
 We aim at continuous and sustainable improvement of this policy.
Responsibilities
Management
 Management will provide the safety measures to all employees at the time of natural
calamities.
 Training will be provided to all the employees.
 All the dangerous equipment, if any will be set aside with immediate effect.
 Management will co-operate with workers in case they need any advice related to
workplace health and safety.
 Complaints of workers related to workplace health and safety system will be entertain
within 24 hours of lodgment (except exceptional circumstances)
Employees
 Every worker of organization will follow the instructions provided by management in
order to ensure safe working environment.

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
4
 Workers will not do any act that lead to danger for other employees.
 As required under Section 28 of the Act, apart from management, employees will be
responsible for their own safety.
 It is required on the part of employees to report incidents related to WHS if comes into
knowledge as soon as possible.
 Workers are advised not to misuse any provision of this Policy.
Application
In order to ensure Zero accidents and health related issues at workplace, this Policy covers wider
area and applicable to all the employees of all three shifts and includes casual and indirect
employees if any. (Please refer appendix 1 for further details)
WHS Management System
Safety of workers at workplace is a much-needed requirement in the current business scenario.
Regardless the type and size of an organization, it is required to have a Workplace health and
safety system (herein after mentioned as “WHS”) in every organization. In New South Wales, a
separate legislation has made on this topic that is well known as Work Health and Safety Act
2011. This act binds the Crown (New South Wales Government, 2018).
According to Section 3(h) of this Act, it requires to maintain the national harmonization of work
health and safety related laws and to develop a consistent national approach related to work
health and safety in the applicable jurisdiction area i.e. jurisdiction of NSW.
WHS management system is a systematic methodology to identify the risk involved in working
process and to development of a proper procedure in order to resolve the involved issues. Call

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
5
centers are the organization where people spend most of their time on phone calls. This can
create an issue of hearing. Noise is a one of the lead workplace hazard that is common at call
centers (safework.nsw.gov.au, 2018). Following are the code of Practices at call centers that
addresses WHS issues:
1. Computer Based work
2. Visual comfort
3. Vocal Comfort
4. Aggressive Calls
5. Headset Work (Australian Government, 2018)
In this case, as mentioned that organization is a call center hence in this scenario safety tools
provided under Part 3.1 of Chapter 3 of Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 will be
suitable. According to the mentioned part, specific requirements of workers must be complied
with (legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2018). Elimination of risk is not practically possible so for this
reason, focus of WHS management system will be on minimization of risk. In addition to this,
some standards are also provided there to ensure an appropriate WHS System. AS4801 and
AS4804 are the standards that provide another way to ensure the development of an appropriate
WHS System. According to these standards, an organization by conducting a third party audit
can review the efficiency of WHS system (logicbusinessresources, 2018). Therefore, in the given
case these standards may work as an appropriate WHS system.

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
6
Resources
In order to develop a WHS management system, apart from Policy and system establishment,
resources are also a mandatory part. Policy making and system establishment is a one-time task
but an organization cannot develop a WHS system in a healthy and efficient manner until unless
the same invest some resources on to it. A management has to introduce some resources to
support WHS policy and system surety. In the given case, workplace is a call center; hence, no
manufacturing or sale related activities would happen there. This is a service industry and no
supply chain management related risk is there. Customer dealing is the lead activity when it
comes to a call center. After reviewing all the working conditions, policy and existed WHS
System, following are the resources that the management will need:-
 As mentioned in the policy that training will be provided to workers so for this, money
and training equipment such as video conferencing facilities, Internet connection,
Projector, and trainer would be required.
 To process a compliant of worker within 24 hours, proper staff and risk manager need to
be appoint in the organization which will lead a cost.
 Damages equipment such as Mic and speakers need to be set aside according to the
policy, hence there would be requirement of some junior level staff to do the necessary.
 As earlier mentioned that organization will follow the AS4801 and AS4804 standards,
therefore Independent professionals would be in requirement.
It can mention here that training, trainer, money, junior and senior level staff for WHS
system, support and administrations are the main resources that management of organization
must provide in order to develop a proper WHS system.

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
7
Consultation
Part 5 of the Act provides the provisions related to Consultation, representation and participation
of various parties and participants of a WHS System. Reporting of the issues is a significant part
of an efficient WHS system. Section 46 to 49 of the Act, describes the legal requirement for
consultation, information sharing, and participation. Work Health and Safety Codes of Practice
2011 is a set of guidelines provided by government in this area. This practice code defines the
activity of risk management at each level in a WHS system.
Section 49 of the act defines the circumstances when matters and issues related to WHS system
are required to be consult (Tooma, 2012). As per the provisions of this section, there is a legal
requirement to consult the health and safety related matter when the same are related to adequacy
of facilities, ways of minimization of risk, assessment of risk and so on. Further Section 46 and
47 contents duties of accountable person and Section 48 of the act describes the nature of
consultation (austlii, 2018). After the study of provided provisions in the act, it is to stipulate that
an appropriate method of consultation in this organization will be as follow:
Lead Duty Holder Other Person who owns the similar duty
Worker
First, it is the duty of a duty holder and responsible person to explain ad discuss the matter with
other duty holders. After that as every safety and health related matter affect workers, therefore

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
8
such matter must be further discuss with the employees. For the given case scenario, this will be
an appropriate method for consultation.
Issue Resolution: - Procedure of issue resolution is provided under Sections 80 to 82 of the Act
(International Labour Organization, 2018) Following is the prepared flow chart according to the
requirement of relevant legislations.
Issue generation
Discussion among the parties of the issue
Reasonable efforts by the parties to resolve such issue
Reporting to the Team Leader/Supervisor
Appointment of inspector
WHS performance
Similar to any other practices and procedures, only establishment and development of a WHS
system is not sufficient to provide safeguard to employees. This is also mandatory to check and
evaluate efficiency of mentioned system timely. There are some performance indicators by that
one can know the success or failure of a WHS system in a particular organization. These
indicators can further divided in two categories namely positive and negative indicators.

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
9
However, in organization given in the case, following indicators can be use to evaluate WHS
performance and efficiency:-
1. Regular Work Place Inspection and Audit- Timely work place inspections and audits
keep an organization updated with present and potential workplace hazards. Inspections
and audits shall be conducted in a manner that it provides the employees and managers
with appropriate information so that proactive actions can be taken in order to reduce or
eliminate the risk posed by the organization (Safe work Australia, 2017).
2. Hazard and Incident Reporting: - Evaluation of number of hazards reported during a
particular periods is a kind of Proactive Performance Indicators. In this measure, a
manager shall calculate the total number of hazards, total number of high-risk hazards
and ratio of completed hazards along with incident reports. Further, work health and
safety manager will prepare a report based on mentioned figures and data. This report
shall reflect the performance of WHS system (University of Wollongong, 2018).
3. Worker Compensation:- In this method, a manager or a person who is responsible to
ensure healthy and safe workplace will look after the claims and compensation files of
the workers. Here, a person who is using this indicator will check that how many claims
have made by the workers in a particular time. In addition to this ratio of injuries, which
require lost time, shall also be studied. This study provides an overview of the efficiency
of WHS system.

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
10
Induction Checklist For Workers
Worker’s name…………… Supervisor’s name…………..
Worker’s position……… Worker’s start date…………
(Tick  if yes)
1.) Have you been informed about work place safety rules?
( )
2.) Have you been provided with the safety manuals of the machines you will be using?
( )
3.) Have you been introduced with your manager & supervisor?
( )
4.) Have you been introduced with your work place health and safety representative?
( )
5.) Are you completely aware about your rights and responsibilities towards work place
Health and safety?
( )
6.) Have you read work place health and safety policy?
( )
7.) Have you been provided with initial health and safety training?
( )
8.) Have you been informed about the actions to be taken in case of emergency?
( )

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
11
9.) Have you submitted your medical certificate with the organization?
( )
10.) Have you been informed about the issue resolution and employee
Claim settlement process followed by the company?
WHS training for managers
Training of managers is also a significant area of study and discussion. A security manager or a
leader cannot perform their duties effectively until unless they do not have proper understanding
of their role. National Safety Council of Australia has designed a course for leaders and
managers who are responsible to ensure safety and security at workplace. This course is a part of
training. Training is required to inform and train a manager about his roles and responsibilities. It
is required to have a proper understanding of the role to manager according to the act.
In a training program that would be design for the mangers, following topics will be covered:-
 Roles and responsibilities of manager
 Importance of Safety work environment
 Legislative responsibilities
 Consultation procedure
 Manner in which an issue should be entertain
 Risk management Procedure (National Safety Council of Australia, 2018)