Comprehensive Guide to Occupational Health and Safety in Australia

This assignment provides a detailed overview of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) regulations and practices in Australia. It addresses key aspects of the OHS Act, including hazard identification, risk assessment, and control measures. The assignment outlines the responsibilities of employers and employees in ensuring workplace safety, including training, incident investigation, and consultation processes. It also covers the hierarchy of control, legal obligations, and enforcement mechanisms, such as fines and prosecutions. The document emphasizes the importance of due diligence, worker participation, and continuous improvement in maintaining a safe and healthy work environment. References to relevant legislation and academic sources are included to support the analysis. This assignment is a valuable resource for students studying workplace safety and OHS compliance in Australia, offering practical insights into the legal framework and best practices.

Running head: COOKERY
Cookery
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Question 1
In Australia, the name of the Act that is followed by the employers and employees for
the workplace safety is OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT, Australia under
the Victorian Legislation.
Question 2
The hazards have to be identified in the OHS such as the issues in the physical work
environment and the work management and the design. These risks have to be assessed
properly by the management such as:
 Severity of the risk
 To check whether the existing measures for control are effective in nature
 To check whether the uncertainty can cause illness or not
Proper assessment of the risks has to be measured by the management, as this will
help in controlling the risk. The hierarchy of control is as follows:
Figure 1: OHS Hierarchy
(Source: Created by author)
Question 3

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The five steps that have to be followed by the organization to remain complaint with
OHS program are as follows:
 Ensuring of the safe system of the work
 Ensuring safe usage and proper handling of the substances and goods
 Providing proper training and development of the workers in ensuring they are safe in
the factories
 Proper assessment of the risk and implementing appropriate measures to control such
issues
 Lastly, proper investigation of the incidents that has to be avoided from the factories
in order to provide safety to the workers in the factories.
Question 4
The legislation of OHS in Australia aims in protecting the health of the workers at the
workplace. This helps in imposing proper obligations in order to contribute to the successful
management at the factories (Martínez-López et al. 2016).
Question 5
Reasonably Practicable means ensuring health and safety of the individuals at the
factories at a reasonable point of time that includes all important matters that includes
likelihood of the hazards.
Question 6
The workers at workplace have to take full responsibility of taking care of their health
from the different hazards and be safe from the hazards (Li et al. 2016).
Question 7

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Consultation includes proper awareness, understanding as well as commitment among
the workers at workplace to ensure safety at workplace. The organization needs to assess the
risks that will help them in warning the workers to eliminate the risks and be safe.
Question 8
Due Diligence is wherein the workers will take precautions under different situations
at workplace in order to prevent the injuries as well as accidents at the workplace. It is related
to OHS as this helps in providing precautionary measures for the different accidents and
injuries (Harpur and French 2014).
Question 9
 On spot fines
 Enforceable undertakings
 Prosecutions
Question 10
 The employer will be prosecuted in the WHS laws.
 Time frame – Six months
 The category is when the employers and employees in the workplace are not
following the rules and regulations properly.
 Maximum penalty- for corporations is $1,365,030, and for individuals is $273,006.
Question 11
 Providing benefit as well as evidence to the health management
 Providing continuous improvement
 Proper enabling an effective performance in the workplace

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 Proper demonstration of continuous improvement in the performance of health and
safety (Blewett et al. 2014)
Question 12
 Proper employment records
 Proper training records related to occupational hazards
 Work, health and safety records
Question 13
 Proper voice of workers who will be speaking about the health and safety matters
 The representative who will help the workers in being practical in order to engage at
workplace
 The representative has to enable proper working conditions as this will help the entire
workforce to perform the activities without any hazard (Bailey, Woolley and Raftery
2015)
Question 14
 Health and safety representative needs to facilitate the information in the business
 Proper creation and implementation of safety and health policies with proper
accordance with the new legislations
 Proper entering as well as inspecting the workplace
 Proper investigating the complaints as well as the risks for the workers in the
workplace
 Proper feedback is provided to the workers and meeting the duties
Question 15

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Requirements of employer in providing training and information to the workers
regarding the OHS are as follows:
 Provide as well as maintain safe and secure working environment
 Ensuring that the workplace is under control and safe in nature
 Providing adequate facilities to the employees in the organization
 Provide proper training and instruction to the workers as they can work safely in the
factory (Bong et al. 2015)
Question 16
 Talking with each other about different WHS matters
 Making proper decisions on health and safety programs
 Identifying the hazards as well as assessing the risks
 Making proper decisions relating to elimination of risks
 Proposing proper changes as to eliminate the hazards at workplace
 Proper sharing of views and ideas on eliminating the issues at workplace
 Proper proposing changes as this will help in welfare of the workers (Sekendiz et al.
2014)
 Advising the workers regarding the hazards that may occur while working in factory
Question 17
 In order to identify the hazards at workplace
 In order to assess the level of risks at workplace
 In order to Control risks in factories
 Proper reviewing technique
Question 18

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 Up to date register that includes all the members including the information related to
their contact (Sweeting et al. 2016)
 Proper up to date version of rules
 Up to date information about the different people in the factory who are the office
holders that includes the committee members
 Up to date information of accounts as well as different financial transactions to keep a
fair record of the status of the company
 Up to date information of the minutes of the meeting has to be maintained as this will
help in getting a brief about the annual general meetings
 Up to date information on maintaining records about the disclosures that will be
discussed in the minutes meeting
 Up to date information on maintaining true and fair accounts of the factory along with
the pay slip of the workers in the workplace
 Lastly, up to date notices has to be ascertained as this will help in getting adequate
information on the rules of association
Question 19

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References
Bailey, T., Woolley, J. and Raftery, S., 2015. Compliance and enforcement in road safety and
work health and safety: a comparison of approaches.
Blewett, V., Rainbird, S., Clarkson, L., Etherton, H. and Paterson, J., 2014. Strategic
engagement: including youth in the development of the Youth Work Health and Safety
Strategy for South Australia. In Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management
XI: Nordic Ergonomics Society Annual Conference Proceedings (pp. 711-716).
Bong, S., Rameezdeen, R., Zuo, J., Li, R.Y.M. and Ye, G., 2015. The designer's role in
workplace health and safety in the construction industry: post-harmonized regulations in
South Australia. International Journal of Construction Management, 15(4), pp.276-287.
Harpur, P. and French, B., 2014. Is it Safer Without You?: Analysing the Intersection
between Work Health and Safety and Anti-Discrimination Laws.
Li, J., Whitlow, M., Bitsura-Meszaros, K., Leung, Y.F. and Barbieri, C., 2016. A preliminary
evaluation of World Heritage tourism promotion: comparing websites from Australia, China,
and Mexico. Tourism Planning & Development, 13(3), pp.370-376.
Martínez-López, J., Bertzky, B., Bonet-García, F.J., Bastin, L. and Dubois, G., 2016.
Biophysical characterization of protected areas globally through optimized image
segmentation and classification. Remote Sensing, 8(9), p.780.
Sekendiz, B., Norton, K.I., Keyzer, P., Dietrich, J., Coyle, I.R., Jones, V. and Finch, C.F.,
2014. An evaluation of emergency plans and procedures in fitness facilities in Australia:
implications for policy and practice. Global Risk Forum.

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Sweeting, J., Ingles, J., Ball, K. and Semsarian, C., 2016. Sudden deaths during the largest
community running event in Australia: A 25-year review. International journal of
cardiology, 203, pp.1029-1031.