Occupational Health & Safety
Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is everyone’s business. The reason OSH is so important is for a variety of reasons:
- To protect you in the workplace
- To protect everyone else in the workplace
- To ensure productivity of the business is optimised
- To reduce claims for down time due to injury
- But the most important reason is that everyone wants to go home safely from the workplace to their families, so that they can come to work tomorrow and remain healthy.
It is unlawful to provide an unsafe workplace and therefore employers and supervisors need to be well aware of their legal obligations to their workforce. Ignorance is not acceptable and can result in unnecessary accidents and prosecution. Employers have a duty of care and the law is very clear on the requirements. Employers have an obligation to be familiar with the Act and the Regulations.
Directions staff are constantly updated on changes to OSH legislation and are trained in risk assessment and generic advice for employers.
In 2012, OSH will become Workplace Health and Safety under a National Act and therefore there will be some changes. Directions will offer information sessions relating to the new Act over the coming months. Currently the Mining industry comes under their own OSH Act, but after 2012, they will all come under the same Act as everyone else.
Under the current Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984, the following summary is important to know for employers:
Employers Duty of Care – Section 19
- Provide and maintain a safe workplace, plant and systems of work
- Provide information, instruction, training and supervision
- Consult and co-operate with employees
- Provide personal protective equipment or clothing where necessary
- Make arrangements to ensure that the use, cleaning, transportation and disposal of plant and the use, handling, processing, storage, transportation and disposal of substances is done so employees are not exposed to a hazard.
Duty of Employees – Section 20
- Take care of their own and others safety and health
- Follow employer’s instructions
- Wear and use personal protective equipment and clothing correctly
- Not misuse or damage any equipment provided by the employer in the interest of safety and health
- Report hazards, injury or disease
- Co-operate with the employer
Risk Assessment
If the risk is the probability of the hazard causing injury, harm to health or damage, then how can we assess the level of risk?
Risk is the likelihood of an accident/incident occurring measured against the consequence of what could occur. A risk matrix can assist in determining the level of risk and the priority for corrective action, if required.
When considering the risk controls that need to be applied, consultation between employees and management needs to occur. This is to ensure the controls to be applied are effective and practicable. “Practicable” relates directly to the necessity, availability, suitability and cost of the risk control measures to be applied.
The following is an example of a matrix:
Step 1: The organisation identifies the consequence for each potential risk by using the table below. Note: If a combination of harm, loss or damage could occur the worst case consequence is selected.
| Level | Description of Consequence |
|---|---|
|
High (1) (High level of harm) |
Potential death, permanent disability or major structural failure/damage. Off-site environmental discharge/release not contained and significant long-term environmental harm. |
|
Medium (2) (Medium level of harm) |
Potential temporary disability or minor structural failure/damage. On-site environmental discharge/release contained, minor remediation required, short-term environmental harm. |
|
Low (3) (Low level of harm) |
Incident that has the potential to cause persons to require first aid. On-site environmental discharge/release immediately contained, minor level clean up with no short-term environmental harm. |
Step 2: Using the following table, the organisation determines how likely it is that the risk will occur and result in the consequence identified above.
| Level | Likelihood/Probability |
|---|---|
| Likely | Could happen frequently |
| Moderate | Could happen occasionally |
| Unlikely | May occur only in exceptional circumstances. |
Step 3: Using the risk matrix below, the organisation identifies the risk class/ranking.
| Consequence | Likelihood/Probability | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Likely | Moderate | Unlikely | |
| High (1) | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Medium (2) | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Low (3) | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Class/Ranking | Description / Requirements |
|---|---|
| 1 |
Will require detailed pre-planning. Actions will be recorded on a Safe Work Method Statement |
| 2 |
Will require operational planning. Actions will be recorded on a Safe Work Method Statement |
| 3 | Will require localised control measures |
This matrix is taken from the WA OSH Subby’s pack which is available in Word format on the Safety Line website: http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/WorkSafe/Content/Industries/Construction/
Hierarchy of Control (the higher up the control measure, the better the safety outcome):
Elimination – completely removes the hazard, or risk of exposure to the hazard
Substitution – All staff and management involved in replacing a hazardous substance, machinery or work process with a non-hazardous or less hazardous one.
Isolation – segregation and/or separation of hazardous process, materials or conditions.
Engineering Controls – if a hazard cannot be eliminated or substituted the next preferred measure is to control the risk. For example:
- Modification of tools and equipment
- Using enclosures (eg sound barriers)
- Guarding
- Local exhaust ventilation
- Automation – eg forklifts, pallet lifters etc
Administrative controls – These are about introducing new work practices which reduce risk. For example:
- Training (eg manual handling, equipment, safety legislation, procedures)
- Job rotation
- Adopting policies which take account of health and safety
- Special safety measures to be followed for use of materials handling equipment
- Lockout and tag-out procedures
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – The Last Resort
PPE should only be used where other measures are not practicable.
Using this control solely is less reliable than using controls higher up on the hierarchy of control and will require more management effort by the user and their supervisors.
In summary
Generally, the risk controls applied to most hazards are a combination of the hierarchy of controls listed above.
