Communication of work health and safety information
Communicating work health and safety information to personnel is an important task. You may need to tailor this to suit different areas of the organisation.
Work health and safety information may include:
➢ Methods used for work health and safety consultation
o group meetings
o one-to-one meetings
o conference calls
o surveys and questionnaires
➢ Emergency evacuation plans
➢ Codes of conduct
➢ Location of first aid kits
➢ Employee roles and responsibilities in work health and safety management practices
➢ WHS legislation, including information on primary components such as the:
o actions that must be taken for legal compliance
o employer responsibilities to provide a safe workplace
o requirement to consult, and acceptable consultation mechanisms
o requirements for the use of WHS representatives and committees, and their roles and responsibilities
o requirements for hazard identification, risk assessment, risk control and acceptable mechanisms
o requirements for record keeping and acceptable record keeping mechanisms
o requirement to provide information and training
o employee responsibilities to ensure safety of self, other workers and other people in the workplace
o employee responsibility to participate in WHS practices
o ramifications of failure to observe OHS or WHS legislation and organisational policies and procedures
➢ WHS websites and blogs
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➢ WHS training information and updates
➢ Legal obligations and ramifications of failure to comply
➢ Newspaper, magazine and journal articles
➢ Incident and hazard logbooks
➢ In-house statistics and data
➢ Methods used for identifying hazards
o exploring the workplace
o speaking with colleagues, managers and supervisors
o examining equipment, materials and substances
o conducting a ‘Hazard and Operability (HAZOP)’ study
a systematic approach to examining each separate part of a work practice, identifying along the way all the potential ways in which hazards can arise
o conducting a ‘Failure Mods and Effects Analysis (FMEA)’ a FMEA is a ‘bottom up method for assessing the ways in which the basic elements of a system, process or piece of equipment can fail, leading to hazards
o the ‘Structured What-If Technique’ (SWIFT) SWIFT involves a team of experts brainstorming ‘what if?’ scenarios e.g. ‘What is there is a power cut?’ ‘What if there is a flood?’
➢ Methods used for conducting risk assessments
o assessing in-house statistics and data relating to incidents, hazards and risks
o examining equipment, materials and substances
o exploring the workplace
o qualitative analysis this involves plotting risks on a graph or matrix the likelihood of a risk occurring can be ranked horizontally, while the impact of the risk can be ranked vertically
o quantitative analysis
P a g e | 14 this involves assigning numbers to risks according to whether they are highly likely or highly unlikely to occur
➢ Organisation-specific policies and procedures
➢ Specific risk control measures for the workplace
➢ Specific regulations and codes of practice
➢ Use of:
o hazard identification reporting documents
o risk assessment template documents.
There are a variety of ways that you could get health and safety information across. You may want to use more than one method.
Communication methods may include:
➢ Team meetings
➢ Conference/presentation
➢ Training day
➢ Email
➢ Website link
➢ Posters
➢ Signs
➢ Booklets and leaflets
➢ Training manuals.
Workplace requirements
It is important for you to know the objectives, components and comprehensive details of relevant state or territory OHS or WHS legislation and the actions that must be taken for legal compliance. Both you and your employer have duties to ensure that you are working within legislative guidance.
Employer duties to provide a safe workplace, for example:
➢ A safe layout of the workplace
➢ Safe design and maintenance of facilities and equipment
o including cleanliness
o regular checks of equipment/facilities safety
➢ Good lighting that allows workers to move around and
complete their work without risk and safe evacuation of
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the premises
➢ Employer should also provide plans of what to do in an emergency, first aid kits and trained first aiders and personal protective equipment.
Employee duties:
➢ To ensure safety of self, other workers and other people in the workplace
➢ To participate in work health and safety practices
➢ To keep updated with legislation and regulations.
Other regulations govern the:
➢ Requirement to consult, designated times for consultation and acceptable consultation mechanisms
➢ Requirements for the use of work health and safety representatives and committees, and their roles and responsibilities for example:
o the regulations regarding the election of health and safety representatives
➢ Designated times for hazard identification and categories of hazards that must be identified e.g. health of worker if conducting work that means exposure to hazardous substances
➢ Acceptable mechanisms for hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control
➢ Requirements for record keeping and acceptable record keeping mechanisms
➢ Requirements to provide information and training.
These will differ depending on your organisation and the risks and hazards that occur in the workplace. The WHS Act has specific sections regarding certain roles, for example construction work and transportation and specific risks e.g. noise, confined spaces, hazardous manual tasks, falls etc.
Duty of care
Duty of care refers to the responsibility of each person to do everything within their power to ensure a safe and healthy environment.
Duty of care places into a legal form a moral duty to anticipate possible causes of injury and illness and to everything reasonably practicable to remove or minimise these possible causes of harm. This duty of care is written into the Workplace Health and Safety legislation as obligations.
In a practical way, duty of care in a WHS context includes things such as:
➢ Workplace procedures for controlling risks
➢ Identifying, assessing, controlling risks and reviewing control measures
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➢ Providing appropriate training, equipment and PPE
➢ Reporting incidents
➢ Minimising risk.
All adults in a workplace are legally responsible for workplace health and safety issues. Duty of care cannot be delegated.
Emergency plans
An emergency plan is a course of action developed to mitigate the damage of any event that could endanger an organisation and its workers. Emergency plans should include measures that provide for the safety of personnel and, if possible, property and facilities.
Since emergencies will occur, planning is necessary. An urgent need for rapid decisions, shortage of time, and lack of resources and trained personnel can lead to chaos during an emergency. Time and circumstances in an emergency mean that normal channels of authority and communication cannot be relied upon to function routinely. The stress of the situation can lead to poor judgment resulting in severe losses.
When there is an emergency situation, people are less likely to think clearly, and may panic, particularly when exposed to serious and immediate danger. Special plans and procedures are required for emergencies such as: fire, explosion, medical emergency, rescues, incidents with hazardous chemicals, bomb threats, armed confrontations and natural disasters.
Factors to consider:
➢ How can things go wrong? What is the worst possible outcome?
➢ How will people deal with the problems? You should look at any
particular roles, duties, responsibilities and training needed.
➢ Do people need to evacuate in an emergency? If so, do they know
how and where to go?
➢ What emergency services would need to get to the site? How
would they be raised?
Under Workplace Health and Safety regulation all workplaces must have a safety plan for emergency situations.
Emergency plans should include:
➢ A floor plan of the workplace showing exits, fire extinguishers
and assembly points in plain view of all staff, clients and
visitors
➢ Regular training of staff in evacuation procedures
➢ Regular random fire/evacuation drills
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➢ Regular checks and maintenance on all equipment
➢ Signage that clearly marks exits, fire extinguishers, first aid points, etc.
It is important to take all evacuation drills seriously and be familiar with the procedures in place. These procedures can vary for fire, gas leaks, chemical spills, blood spills, natural disasters, bomb threats, hold-ups, threatened physical harm or assault, and injury depending on your workplace, so it is vital to know what is applicable.
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