Australian School of Commerce: Ensure a Safe Workplace Report

This report focuses on developing an effective Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) management system for Australian Hardware, a company experiencing rapid expansion. It defines workplace health and safety, outlines the Australian legislative framework including the WHS Act, regulations, and codes of practice, and details the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders such as managers, employees, HRM, and WHS consultants. The report emphasizes the importance of policies and procedures, including compliance with WHS Act and regulations, handling hazardous materials, minimizing pollution, and regular workplace environment reviews. It also addresses record-keeping, consultation, workers' compensation, and risk management policies to ensure a safe and healthy work environment. The report aims to provide a comprehensive WHS management system to safeguard employees and comply with legal and ethical considerations.

Running head: ENSURE A SAFE WORKPLACE
Ensure a Safe Workplace
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Authors Note:

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Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Purpose and objective of the report:................................................................................................2
Workplace health and safety definition:..........................................................................................2
Legislative framework:................................................................................................................3
Roles and responsibilities:...........................................................................................................4
Managers:................................................................................................................................4
Employees:..............................................................................................................................4
HRM:.......................................................................................................................................5
WHS consultants:....................................................................................................................5
Policies and procedures:..............................................................................................................5
Keeping records:......................................................................................................................9
Consultation:............................................................................................................................9
Workers’ compensation & rehabilitation:...............................................................................9
Risk management policies:....................................................................................................10
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................10
References:....................................................................................................................................12
References..................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction:
Australian Hardware is expanding at a rapid speed to include 138 warehouses in all across
Australia in a short span of time However, the rapid expansion has certainly increased the risk of
inconsistency in complying with the national and consistent workplace health and safety (WHS)
approach of the company. Considering the utmost importance of WHS requirements within an
organization in Australia, a WHS consultant has been appointed to research and propose an
appropriate WHS management system for the company to ensure that the workplace safety and
health requirements are given priority over other matters.
Purpose and objective of the report:
As is clear from the introduction section to the report that the purpose and objective of the report
is to formulate an effective WHS management system for the Australia Hardware commensurate
to the needs and requirements of the expanding business of the company. The legal and ethical
considerations are taken extremely seriously by the company and hence, it is first priority for the
company to have a standard and commensurate WHS management system in place. The need of
a commensurate WHS management system in place is to provide a safe and healthy workplace
environment to the workers and employees of the company.
Workplace health and safety definition:
The workplace health and safety definition is an elaborated one and includes number of different
aspects. Providing a safe and healthy environment to the workers and employees at the place of
work can be defined as the WHS management system. In this case, formulating and establishing
an effective WHS management system in place for the company keeping in mind the ever
expanding business of the company is the definition of WHS for Australian Hardware.

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Legislative framework:
In Australia, there 5 parts that combine the Australian WHS legislative framework. The five
parts accumulating to compile the WHS legislative framework in the country are as following:
Work Health & safety Act: WHS Act is the country is applicable to the whole of Australia since
it was passed except Victoria and Western Australia. Companies operating in the country must
comply with the provisions of this act to provide appropriate environment for the workers and
employees at the workplace.
The rules and regulations are created by the State and Territory governments to ensure work
place safety and other requirements are complete in all respect to provide the workers and
employees suitable workplace environment.
WHS regulations:
The WHS regulations are the regulations made by the Government and other statutory authorities
to improve the WHS environment for the workers.
The code of practice:
Implementation of WHS Act is possible with the use of code of practice. The codes of practice is
used to ensure that the provisions of the act is implemented effectively.
Applicable standards:
Standards applicable to the guide the implementation of WHS management system within
workplaces.
Guidance materials:

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Finally, the guidance materials help in initiating the act is useful for the implementation of the
act.
Roles and responsibilities:
The roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders in an organization to improve the WHS
requirements and implement an effective WHS management system in place for the organization
must be properly understood and accordingly fulfilled by the stakeholders. There are number of
stakeholders in an organization, these are employees, managers, human resource manager, WHS
consultants and others. Taking into consideration the existing condition of the company let us
elaborate the roles and responsibilities of the following stakeholders to implement a
commensurate WHS management system within the company.
Managers:
The managers of Australian Hardware must assess the existing WHS arrangements within the
organization and its warehouses to assess the inconsistencies and gap between the standard
arrangements and the existing arrangements within the organization. Based on the analysis the
managers should take necessary decisions to improve the existing arrangements to reduce the
gap and inconsistencies.
Employees:
The employees are the most important pillar in an organization. The success and failure of an
organization is dependent on the performance of the employees. The employees shall be
communicated about the expectations of the company from them. The above expectation will be
achieved only if the WHS arrangements are proper and in place. The employees of Australian
Hardware will play extremely important role in ensuring that the WHS management system is

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working effectively. The employees are given different roles and responsibilities and they must
discharge these roles and responsibilities effectively to achieve the organizational objectives.
HRM:
Human resource manager is the person responsible to recruit employees and workers required for
different operations of an organization. In this case also HRM is the person responsible to recruit
qualified and skilful workers and employees to improve the performance of the company overall.
Recruiting and putting right people at right position is the way forward to achieve organizational
objectives. HRM must ensure that proper individuals have been recruited and appointed to carry
out appropriate roles and responsibilities for the company.
WHS consultants:
WHS consultants will help the company to evaluate the existing WHS arrangements in the
workplace. Based on the evaluation the WHS consultants shall be prepare a report to outline the
strengths and weaknesses of the existing system in place. In addition to that the WHS consultants
shall also provide appropriate recommendations to deal with the existing weaknesses and issues
identified in the report of the company. The objective behind using the services of WHS
consultants is to formulate and establish an optimum WHS management system in workplace of
the company to comply with the provisions of WHS Act and regulations.
Policies and procedures:
Policies and procedures are the set of activities and works that the organization must carry out to
in such a manner to ensure that the workplace health and safety requirements are in place.
Considering that the company has expanded at a rapid speed and has opened 138 warehouses in
all across the country in a short span of time thus, the possibility of inconsistency and non-

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compliance with the WHS Act is quite high. Accordingly, appropriate policies and procedures
shall be instituted to improve the WHS management system of the company in the future
(Promoting Health and Safety Virtually: Key Recommendations for Occupational Health Nurses,
2018).
Policy shall comply with the provisions of WHS Act and Regulations:
The policies shall be designed by the company keeping in mind the provisions of WHS Act and
regulations. Accordingly, to the act the workplace environment must be suitable and conducive
for the workers. Necessary facilities such as air controller, air cooler, fire extinguishment system,
air conditioning and other such minimum requirements must be in place to provide a suitable
workplace environment for the workers to discharge their responsibilities (Preventing Workplace
Violence: The Occupational and Environmental Health Nurse Role, 2017).
Procedures shall be implemented keeping in mind the policies of the company:
Taking into consideration the policies of the company, the management shall determine
appropriate procedures to be implemented to achieve the policy goals of the company set at the
initial stage of policy and procedure implementation by the company.
Identifying the employees and workers:
After determination policy and procedures the management shall identify suitable employees and
workers of the company to discharge their roles and responsibilities in a manner suitable for the
company to achieve its organizational goals including improving the existing workplace health
and safety arrangements.
Different policy to deal with hazardous materials in the workplace:

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Since, the company’s employees had to deal with hazardous materials at the workplace hence,
necessary precautions shall be taken by the employees before dealing such hazardous materials.
Hence, it is important to have appropriate strategy to deal with hazardous materials
(Occupational Trajectories and Immigrant Worker Health, 2018).
Reducing the pollution at the minimum level possible:
The pollution at the workplace should be as low as possible. Since it is almost impossible to have
a workplaces with zero pollution due to the obvious reason of operating activities being
conducted in these workplaces. Using all necessary measures such as use of clean and clear
energy, minimizing the generation waste from factory and other units of manufacturing, using
pollution free equipment and machineries in factory and manufacturing units and other such
measures would help the company to reduce the pollution at the workplace (Leveraging Best
Practices to Promote Health, Safety, Sustainability, and Stewardship, 2018).
Installing pollution control devices:
The organization as a policy must install necessary pollution control devices within the
workplace to ensure that the pollution is as low as possible if not zero. Thus, installing pollution
control devices within the workplace is important part of the overall policy of the company.
Thus, installation of pollution control devices is must considering the hardware materials used
within the organization (Occupational Health Surveillance, 2017).
Reviewing the workplace environment periodically:

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Periodical review of the workplace environment will help the company to modify and make
changes necessary in the existing WHS arrangements to enhance the environment within the
workplace.
Minimizing the manual lifting within the organization:
The company should completely get rid of the practice of the manual lifting of outdoor furniture
and hardware goods to minimize the risk of injury due to manual lifting. Considering that
currently manual lifting takes place both warehouses as well as in customer services areas thus, it
would be encouraging for the company to completely ban the manual labour within the
workplace (Jayen, 2017).
Exposure to the hazardous materials shall be minimized:
Currently, the forklift drivers, drivers in general and customer service staffs are exposed to the
hazardous materials thus, the exposure of these staffs and workers of the company to hazardous
materials shall be minimized.
Segregating the roles and responsibilities effectively:
The company needs to segregate the roles and responsibilities of the workers and employees in a
manner suitable and conducive to the workplace environment. The objective of segregation of
roles and responsibilities must be made in such a manner to ensure that they are contributing
towards the development of a standard WHS management system.
The above steps shall be helpful to the company in achieving its organizational objectives of
instituting an effective WHS management system in place for the company, i.e. Australia
Hardware (Confidentiality of Worker Health Information, 2016).

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Keeping records:
Each and every single record shall be documented and kept properly to ensure that in case of any
reference needed in the future that such records shall be readily available without much problem
to evaluate the past and compare the present with it. Now a days the company should use an
effective WHS management system in place for the company (Cadorette and Agnew, 2017).
Consultation:
Consultation process would help the company to devise an effective WHS management system
for the company to ensure that the inconsistencies and issues associated with WHS management
system are identified and dealt with such a manner that is suitable and conducive to the company
and its environment. Thus, consultants are expected to provide appropriate recommendations to
improve the existing WHS management system and practices.
Workers’ compensation & rehabilitation:
The company should have a standard workers’ compensation and rehabilitation program that will
motivate the workers and employees to perform efficiently in the future. Workers’ compensation
in case of any accident at the workplace or during working hours should be commensurate and
appropriate. The compensation shall be enough to provide for the family of the workers in the
event of any untoward incidents such as accidents and other such events resulting in physical
exertion and physical handicapped (Building a Health Literate Workplace, 2018).
Giving appropriate amount of compensation to the workers at the workplace is the minimum that
an employer must of in order to encourage the workers and employees give their bests while
discharging their roles and responsibilities in the future. Thus, workers compensation including

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pension and gratuity funds shall help the company to motivate each other to achieve organization
objectives in the future (Building a Health Literate Workplace, 2017).
Risk management policies:
There are number of risks that the employees and workers of an organization faces while
conducting different operations and activities for such organization. However, the management
of these risks is essential to the success of an organization. Thus, the company should make
necessary arrangement to deal with the possible risks identified by the company. Risk
management policies of the company include use of machineries and equipment to lift hardware
goods and other weighty materials. Banning of manual lifting shall help the company to
completely get rid of the risk of injuries to the workers and employees from manual lifting.
Ensuring that there is safety gear and equipment in place for the workers and employees to use
while coming in contact with hazardous materials. Installing pollution control devices will help
the company to reduce the risk of health issues from pollution in the workplace. The employees
and workers must be properly segregated in different teams to ensure that the teams are capable
of performing different duties and responsibilities without any problem. Thus, all these steps
shall be helpful in managing the existing risks identified during the evaluation of existing
workplace environment and safety measures in place (2009 WHS Meeting Abstract Author
Index, 2018).
Conclusion:
Taking into consideration the discussion on the importance of having an effective WHS
management system in place within an organization, it is expected that the company will make
appropriate decisions to improve the existing practices and activities within the workplace to
improve the WHS management system and respective arrangements in the workplace. It is

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important to identify the existing weaknesses and issues in the WHS arrangements and
management system of the company to deal with these weaknesses to formulate and establish
new WHS management system in place if necessary to comply with WHS Act and Regulations
of the country (A Systematic Review of Occupational Health and Safety Business Cases, 2016).