Management Occupational Health and Safety

Questions: 1. Explain what you understand about OHS. 2. What is the role of Safe Work, Australia? 3. What is the name of the Victorian Act of Parliament that deals with OHS? 4. Explain the differences between Acts of Parliament, Regulations and Codes of Conduct. (You will find some help on the Worksafe webpage. Explain what each is and then compare them.) 5. List 8 items an employer could find useful from the Worksafe website. 6. Read the following case study and answer the question below:An employee had her hand almost totally severed after it was caught in an inadequately guarded rubbish compacter. The woman was cleaning around the bottom of the machine on the understanding that it was inoperative due to a power shutdown.However, the rubbish compacter was on a different power source from the rest of the machines. The woman also had limited command of written English and the company provided information to employees in English only.What should have been done by staff and management in this example? Answers: 1. Occupational health and safety: Occupational health and safety is concerned with the issue of protecting and safeguarding the health and welfare of people at their work place. The highest degree of safety is the vital human right and should be easily accessible to every worker. The workers should be able to work in an environment that is free from hazards. Work hazards ruins social and family lives of employees and the quality of their lives. The government of Australia spends a minimum amount of 60 billion on employee safety. 2. Safe work Australia: Safe Work Australia is a government statutory institution, which was established in the year 2009 under the act of Safe Work Australia 2008. The prime focus of this institution is to improvise the working environment. In the context of food industry, food industry in Australia is one of the riskiest places to work in. The managers have to plan the layout of the restaurants complying with this act as per the government norms. In many of the cases, the chefs, assistants and waiters are the most affected personnel. By certifying simple health and standards of safety, these restaurants can deliberately lower the risks of accidents (Safeworkaustralia.gov.au, 2015). 3. Victorian Act of Parliament (Occupational health and safety Act of 2004): The act of occupational health and safety 2004 looks upon the safety of the workplace and supports people who have been injured because of the work hazard. The Victorian employers fund the organization as they pay a part of their remuneration, which forms a part of the insurance coverage (Australia.gov.au, 2015). It accounts to take a liable, productive approach to safeguard employees at workplace. It runs an amount of high- profile advertisements campaigns to promote the Act. It does campaigns like work safe week and makes the employees as well as the employers aware of the Act. 4. Difference between act of Parliament regulation and the code of conduct: Act of parliament regulation: Australian government follows a system of Acts, codes and regulation that is the main principal of the workplace health, safety and welfare. It is very necessary for the owners of organizations, managers and employees to understand the hazardous nature of their place of work (enquiries, 2015). Code of conduct: Occupational health and safety codes of practice are practical guides of achieving standards. To practically apply the laws that is mandatory in this regard. The difference between both of them is that even though the law for safe health of the employee is enacted but there are many states, which still have not complied with it. The difference lies in the enactment and the actual application (Austlii.edu.au, 2015). 5. The list of items that might be useful to an employer are: 1. Automatic audible alarms: These alarms are audible from every point at the workplace if any accident takes place.2. Lights: Enough points of lights should be places so that workplace is bight and the employees do not find difficulties to work.3. Motion sensors can be used to detect the hazards through movement of various appliances.4. Fire alarms: Fire alarms can be used to detect if there is some smoke inside the kitchen and is unnoticed. 5. Emergency stops can be used as a measure to vacate a place in case of an emergency.6. Safety uniforms should be suggested to the employees and those clothes should be used that do not catch fire easily.7. Environmental protection: The employers should comply with the environmental checks and should not damage them.8. Heavy machine: if the plant has heavy machines then proper signboards should be assigned to safeguard the employees from hazards (Safeworkaustralia.gov.au, 2015). 6. The case study: According to the Occupational and safety act 2004, if a workers is injured at his/her workplace, then the organization is liable to pay the compensation he/she deserves. Therefore, in this case, the employee will get compensation so that she could get her the best treatment and resume back to her work (Ohsrep.org.au, 2015). Bibliography Austlii.edu.au, (2015).Occupational Health And Safety Act 2004. [online] Available at: https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ohasa2004273/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Australia.gov.au, (2015).Occupational health and safety | australia.gov.au. [online] Available at: https://www.australia.gov.au/topics/health-and-safety/occupational-health-and-safety [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. enquiries, G. (2015).Occupational health and safety harmonisation | Department of Employment. [online] Employment.gov.au. Available at: https://employment.gov.au/occupational-health-and-safety-harmonisation [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Ohsrep.org.au, (2015).The OHS Act - OHS Reps. [online] Available at: https://www.ohsrep.org.au/law-rights/ohs-legislation/the-ohs-act [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Safeworkaustralia.gov.au, (2015).Home - Safe Work Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015]. Safeworkaustralia.gov.au, (2015).Victoria regulators - Safe Work Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/about/who-we-work-with/regulators/vic-regulators/pages/vic-regulators [Accessed 26 Feb. 2015].