Analysis of Workplace Health and Safety in Queensland Assignment

This assignment solution provides a comprehensive overview of workplace health and safety (WHS) in Queensland, addressing core elements, objectives, and principles of the WHS Act 2011. It details the duties of Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBUs), officers, workers, and health and safety representatives. The document explores internal and external information sources for WHS, outlines the legal rights and responsibilities of workers, and explains the role of the WHS regulator. It also discusses seeking advice from a legal advisor on OHS/WHS compliance, qualities of a WHS solicitor, and the elements of a safety and health management system. Finally, it addresses instructions to managers about occupational health and safety and the use of a safety evaluation checklist to ensure organizational compliance with WHS laws and procedures. The assignment provides a detailed analysis of Queensland's WHS framework.

Running head: HEALTH AND SAFETY
WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY QUEENSLAND
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1HEALTH AND SAFETY
Assessment 1: Short Answers
Answer 1
The core four elements of workplace health and safety includes all the aspects that
could make the workplace effective for employees and concerns for their health (both
physical and mental) and security [1]. The first element discusses about the management,
commitment and employee involvement of the organisation for the workplace health and
safety related aspects, their training and modification. Secondly, it mentions of proper
analysis of the worksite so that all the existing and potential hazard of the working
environment could be identified and analyzed [3]. The third aspect of this four core elements
of the workplace health and safety regulation of Queensland is associated with its hazard
prevention and control process so that all the existing potential hazards could be prevented
and the administrative authority could understand the aspects that need to be modified for a
better and developed workplace health and safety program [3]. Finally, the fourth aspect
would be developing training programs for the employees, supervisors and managers so that
they could be provided with effective ideations for the growth and development of the
organization’s ability to control its hazardous condition.
Answer 2
The objectives of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 2011, is to improve the
standards of the workplace and reduce the rate of illness, work related injuries so that workers
and employees could be protected from critical conditions. To achieve these, this act aims to
secure the health and provide welfare and safety to the people working in any organisation.
Besides this, it helps the employees from the health and safety related risks of different
business activities [2]. This helps to maintain a safe and secure environment from the source
and involves employers, as well as employees for the formulation and implementation of the

2HEALTH AND SAFETY
health and safety related standards dedicated for work force. This objectives does not
discriminate between the physical and mental health and protects the employees for their
cumulative health and wellbeing [1].
The principles of workplace health and safety of Queensland pledges to provide the
employees associated with the organisation so that people could be provided with the
effective and quality healthcare process. Employers and employees are provided with the
information so that people could be provided with effective and quality health and safety
aspects [4]. Further, this principles mentions that every employee should be entitled or
provided with responsibility of the work place health and safety aspects within their
organisation so that they can understand aspects of it and could escalate if any loophole is
found. Finally, this principle mentions that it is important for the organisation to implement
the health and safety communication on the floor so that every employee could understand
their Workplace health and safety related rights [2]. Hence, these are the objectives and
principles of this WHS policy and core elements of Queensland.
Answer 3
Duties of PCBU: specific role of these professionals include ensuring the electrical
safety of all the electrical equipment that are used for the conduction of the processes of
business. Further, they also ensure the safety and security of the business and associated
individuals so that while working with these electrical equipment, they could be secured. In
addition, they also ensure that the premise of the organisation is safe from any exposed part
of the electrical system and maintenance is conducted in timely manner [4].
Officers: The role of officers are to understand the extent to which these aspects of
workplace health and safety are implemented in the organisation. If the officer is found guilty
of not performing his or her task perfectly, then the organisation is free to take any legal

3HEALTH AND SAFETY
action against that employee. Therefore, these duties provide the officers an added
responsibility to take care of the aspects that could affect the life and functionality of the
employees working in the organisation [4].
Workers: This act requires the workers to take care of their own health and wellbeing
while working in the healthcare facility so that their safety and security while working in the
environment could be ensured. Further, they are [provided with rights so that they can seek
regulations and changes in the health safety and security prospects under WHS Queensland
so that regular modification could be maintained [4].
Health and safety representatives: these are the professionals are provided with
responsibilities so that they could control any critical condition in workplace related to
workplace health and safety concern. Their job roles include maintenance and installment of
different electrical instruments so that all the employees working in the organisation could be
provided with safety and security [4].
Answer 4
As mentioned by WHS Queensland, implementation and application of workplace
health and safety related aspect is an important process that helps any employee or any
external person to understand the level and stage of WHS policies [3]. As per the WHS
Queensland, the internal sources of information of any organization’s workplace health and
safety is associated with the audit reports, workplace documents, and regulations, employees
and management reports and other reports of organisation such as financial statements,
newsletter and employee statements [2]. Therefore, these are the processes that provide
effective information about the workplace health and safety of any organisation.On the other
hand, the external sources of information includes ex-employees, their past audit and
company profile published online and different magazines and articles published about the

4HEALTH AND SAFETY
workplace health and safety of the organisation. These are the internal and external sources of
information from which people could assess and analyse the work place health and safety
related regulations of any organisation [4].
Answer 5
The four legal rights and responsibilities of workers in Queensland with applied
workplace health and safety is associated with the responsibility of the workers about their
own work and their electrical safety [3]. As per this, their first right is to take care of their
own health and performing actions that could prevent safety and security related concerns.
The second safety concern is associated with their responsibility of assessing and their own
practices, conducts and omissions that possibly do not affect the person by violating the
health and safety related aspects of the person [1]. The third right of the workers are that they
could be able to provide the employees (including themselves) with effective instructions so
that they could overcome such critical hazardous condition and finally, they are provided
with rights so that they could apply the health and safety as well as electrical safety policies
and procedures in their working culture [4].
The term “reasonably practicable” is a term that means that the organisation, work
and safety department and the PCBUs are working in every aspect that could make the work
culture reasonable and practicable so that they could ensure workplace health and safety [4].
In this context it could be said that majority of the work place health and safety hazards that
affects employees are covered with this statement as it means that identification of hazards,
assessment of risk and hazards, elimination of risks that creates hazards are under assessment
and hence, any incident could not be termed as the failure of the WHS department of the
organisation [2].

5HEALTH AND SAFETY
Answer 6
The primary role of the workplace health and safety regulator is to understand the
usage and installation process of all the electrical or hazardous equipment of the organisation
and then assess them within proper intervals so that they could be maintained effectively [1].
Understanding the workers knowledge and their ideation of hazard is also a job role of the
workplace health and safety regulator so that they can modify or regulate the work place
health and safety related legislations implemented in organisation, in a timely manner [3].
Their primary function and power is associated with their ability to take decision for
the benefit of the employees that are working in critical and hazardous conditions. In such
aspect, the person should be provided with effective security and ability so that they could
understand the effectiveness of its application [4].
These enforcement measures are exercised through regular audits in specific intervals,
proper analysis and identification of aspects that could affect the WHS regulation and policy
of the organisation and then understanding and implementing the roles and responsibilities of
the process related personnel [1].
Answer 7:
Two reasons why advice might be sought from a legal advisor about
OHS/WHS compliance would include legal implication or legal consequences for not
adhering to the guidelines of the OHS/WHS framework. The OHS/WHS guidelines mention
that organizations that do not adhere to the guidelines might be categorised under the three
categories of criminal offences or violation of the work health and safety duty which could
lead to the imposition of penalty [1]. Another reason for which a legal advisor might be
consulted would include management of risks and ensuring the health and safety of the work
force. The Work Health Safety Document emphasises on the fact that the persons who are

6HEALTH AND SAFETY
responsible for conducting the business are entitled to ensure that the working condition for
the work force is safe and free from the risks of any potential hazards. Further, the
organizations or the persons conducting the business must also ensure that the business does
not pose any harm to the working employees and in order to ensure occupational safety a risk
assessment consultation can be carried out with a legal advisor.
Five qualities of a legal solicitor which would be considered while sourcing a
Work Health Safety Solicitor would comprise the following [1]:
Effective communication skills. The solicitor must be able to communicate in an
effective manner and clearly outline the agenda
The solicitor must possess effective research and analytical skills so as to analyse the
issue with an in depth research based fervour
The solicitor must have an in depth understanding about the guidelines of Work
Health and Safety framework
The solicitor should not be biased and should be able to hear the concern of both the
parties and undertake a decision
Answer 8:
As stated by Business.qld.gov.au (2019), Safety and Health management
system typically refer to the part of the Organizational management system that covers the
following areas [2]:
The existing policies within a company and the level of health and safety around the
work environment
The existing organizational policies in relation to the prevention of poor health and
accidental injuries

7HEALTH AND SAFETY
The clear line of management responsibilities existing within the organization and
The practices, procedures as well as the resources that are integral for development,
implementation, review and maintenance of proper occupational safety
While giving instructions to managers about occupational and health safety the follow
elements must be considered,
Clear instruction must be given about the appropriate overview of the organizational
hazards and the significance of adhering with the guidelines of the occupational health and
safety
A clear framework for evaluation of the performance, review organizational safety
and auditing must be explained and accordingly the objectives should be critically articulated
to the managers
A clear line of reporting must be explained which could enable management to
evaluate the escalated issue by the management and undertake appropriate measures
Effective line of communication should be maintained so as to ensure that the clear
instructions are communicated to the managers about work place health and safety
Risk assessment measures and performance standards should be explained along with
associated consequences for not complying with the guidelines
Answer 9:
In order to evaluate that whether or not an organization abides by the WHS
laws and procedures, a safety evaluation of the WHS checklist can be conducted. It should be
noted in this context that a Health and Safety Checklist is basically a web-based tool that
critically ensures that work place health and safety standards are critically implemented
within an organization. Research studies mention that conducting workplace health and safety

8HEALTH AND SAFETY
checklist analysis helps significantly in the preventions of accidents, injuries and illnesses
within an organization. It should further be noted in this regard that failure to comply with the
guidelines could result in negative consequences such as poor health and compromised
safety. The health and safety Inspection app is an advanced form of app that allows
evaluation for tracking workplace hazards against the tedious maintenance of paper based
checklists [3]. The app allows to streamline audits, maintain automatic communication,
deliver immediate actions, gain an in depth insight to safety and general quality and share
reports with concerned stakeholders in order to undertake an immediate action and maintain
safety of the workers working for the organization.
The following steps can be undertaken in order to ensure that the organization
is compliant with the work place safety procedures. These procedures include:
An onsite inspection should be carried pout followed by assessment of the areas
including emergency plans, first aid or ensuring whether PPE’s are in place
Critically document the observation and attach photographs that testify the
documentation
Comments about inspection should be added
The checklist tool should be used in order to evaluate whether or not the organization
is compliant with the WHS guidelines
The non-compliant terms should be highlighted and escalated for further review and
audit
Answer 10
Training Needs Analysis can be defined as the procedure of identification of
an existing gap in the training and related skills in the employee. This forms the first stage of

9HEALTH AND SAFETY
a training process which is subsequently followed by a number of procedures that assess the
training needs of the trainee in order to form a conclusion that whether or not training would
help in imparting appropriate skills to the trainee and make him eligible to complete a job
role.
Competency Based Training can be defined as a style of education that
critically focuses on what can be acquired after the completion or a course. The positive
aspect of the training is that the training can be completed by the trainee at their personal
pace and is not restricted to time constraints.
Five WHS Topics that new workers might need training in would include the
following:
Critical guidelines to handle special equipment such as the procedure of donning PEP
Information in relation to First Aid and being familiar with all emergency contacts
Being familiar with all emergency procedures such as the evacuation plan in case of
an unforeseen disaster such as fire or earthquake
Imparting training on industry specific tasks such as operating machinery or
maintaining security and cash

10HEALTH AND SAFETY
References:
1. Business.qld.gov.au. Legal obligations when training staff | Business
Queensland [Internet]. Business.qld.gov.au. 2019 [cited 1 August 2019].
Available from:
https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/employing/employee-
rights/obligations/training
2. Andersons.com.au. Employment Law Specialists | Work Health Safety
Obligations [Internet]. Andersons.com.au. 2019 [cited 1 August 2019].
Available from: https://www.andersons.com.au/areas-of-law/employment-
and-industrial-law/work-health-and-safety-law/
3. WHS. Health and Safety Checklists: Top 8 [Free Download] [Internet].
https://safetyculture.com/checklists/health-safety-checklists/. 2019 [cited 1
August 2019]. Available from: https://safetyculture.com/checklists/health-
safety-checklists/
4. WorkSafe Queensland. Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 [Internet].
WorkSafe Queensland. 2019 [cited 1 August 2019]. Available from:
https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/laws-and-compliance/workplace-health-and-
safety-laws/laws-and-legislation/work-health-and-safety-regulation-2011