Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation requires that all foreseeable hazards are identified and the risks arising from these hazards are eliminated or controlled.

Risk management is a legal requirement for all businesses regardless of their size and basically it involves asking the following questions:

· What hazards exist in the workplace?

· How serious are the hazards?

· What can be done to control these hazards?

Risk management is a four step process whereby you identify hazards in the workplace, then assess the risk of those hazards and then implement control measures, which will eliminate or minimise the risk of injury from the hazards you identified.

Control measures which have been put in place must be reviewed periodically to check that they actually fix the problem, without creating another one.

Step 1: hazard identification

Hazards can be identified through:

· workplace inspections

· incident reporting

· register of injuries

· consultation with employees

· Feedback from employees.

There are a number of business activities which can involve risk to safety. These can include:

· Purchasing: the equipment or chemicals purchased to run your business may introduce safety issues (e.g. plant and equipment; cleaning agents)

· Work activities: in carrying out work tasks the physical and psychological demands of the tasks, equipment used, working environment can place employees at risk (e.g. repetitive movements, length of time spent on the computer, air quality, materials handling)

· Contractors/casual employees/customers: other workers who come into the workplace can be at risk or place your employees at risk from the work activities they conduct (e.g. cleaning agents used by cleaners, electrical contractors, verbal abuse by customers).

Step 2: risk assessment

Risk Assessment determines how likely and how serious the effects will be on people in the workplace being exposed to the hazard. Work out which hazards are most serious and deal with them first. To assess the risk, you should consider:

· the type of hazard

· how severely could the hazard injure or cause illness (consequence)

· how likely is this consequence going to happen (likelihood)

· the frequency and duration of exposure

· who it may effect

· capabilities

· skills, experience and age of people

· Layout and condition of the working environment.

Step 3: risk control

Risk Control involves deciding what needs to be done to eliminate or control the risks to health and safety. Where possible, you should always try to remove or eliminate the problem from the workplace, for example by using a different process, or changing the way a job is done.

If it is not possible to eliminate the hazard, the Hierarchy of Risk Control must be used to determine the most effective measures to minimize the risks.

Hierarchy of risk control

1. Design or reorganize to eliminate the hazard from the workplace: try to ensure that hazards are designed out when new materials, equipment and work systems are being planned for the workplace.

2. Remove or substitute the hazard: where possible remove the hazard or substitute with less hazardous materials, equipment or substances.

3. Enclose or isolate the hazard: this can be done through the use of barriers, introducing a strict work area, enclosing a noisy process from a person.

4. Minimize through engineering controls: this can be done through the use of machine guards, effective ventilation systems etc.

5. Minimize the risk by adopting administrative controls: establish appropriate procedures and safe work practices such as job rotation to reduce exposure time or boredom; timing the work so that fewer employees are exposed; routine maintenance and housekeeping procedures; training on hazards and correct work methods.

6. Personal Protective Equipment: provide suitable and properly maintained personal protective equipment and ensure employees are trained in its proper use (examples include gloves, earplugs etc.).

If no single control is appropriate, a combination of the above controls needs to be taken to minimize the risk to the lowest level that is reasonably practicable.

Step 4: review

Periodic reviews of control measures and risk assessments should be conducted to ensure the control measures implemented are appropriate and effective and the risk assessments are still valid. This can be achieved through safety audits, regular workplace inspections, consultation with employees and review of incident investigations. Risk management should be built into all workplace activities that can give rise to safety issues.

2. WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (WHS) POLICY

This policy recognizes that Australian Hardware is responsible for the health and safety of all employees in the workplace. In fulfilling this responsibility we have a duty to provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risks to health.

To meet the objectives of this policy, we are committed to regular discussions with employees to ensure that health and safety issues are regularly reviewed. Health and safety is most effective when a joint owner/manager and employee approach is used to identify and solve problems.

We are committed to continuously improving WHS by addressing hazards and reviewing outcomes.

Employer/ and managers/supervisors must ensure:

Effective implementation of this policy.
Their responsibilities under the Act and Regulations are met.
Agreed procedures for regular discussion between managers and employees are followed.
All workplace hazards are identified and risks assessed and controlled.
Regular workplace inspections are conducted.
Information, training and supervision are provided for all employees in the correct use of plant, equipment, chemicals and other substances used.

Employees:

Have a duty to take care of their health and safety and that of others.
Must comply with safety procedures and directions.
Must follow reasonable instructions.
Must not willfully interfere with or misuse items or facilities provided in the interest of health and safety.
Must inform their manager or supervisor of hazards, accidents and near accidents occurring at the workplace.

Visitors and contractors must:

Not put themselves or any of our employees at risk.
Abide by our safety policy and rules.
Not enter restricted areas without permission.

This policy will be regularly reviewed in the light of changes to the workplace and changes in legislation.

Management seeks cooperation from all employees in achieving our health and safety objectives and creating a safe work environment.

3. Refer to WHS relevant legislation Codes of practice

A code of practice provides details on how to achieve the standards required under the work health and safety (WHS) legislation, by identifying hazards and managing risks.

Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act), codes of practice are admissible in court proceedings. Courts may regard a code of practice as evidence of what is known about a hazard, risk or control, and rely on it to determine what is reasonably practicable in the circumstances. A person cannot be prosecuted for failing to comply with a code of practice.

A person with duties under the WHS Act can comply with their duties by following another method, such as a technical or industry standard, if it provides a standard of work health and safety equivalent to, or higher than, the code of practice.

An inspector can refer to an approved code of practice when issuing an improvement or prohibition notice and can offer the person to whom the notice is issued a choice of ways in which to remedy the contravention.

All the retained codes of practice are available on this website.

The new WHS codes of practice available from 1 January 2012 include:

Confined spaces
Hazardous manual tasks
How to manage and control asbestos in the workplace
How to manage work health and safety risks
Managing the risk of falls at workplaces
How to safely remove asbestos
Labeling of workplace hazardous chemicals
Managing noise and preventing hearing loss at work
Managing the work environment and facilities
Preparation of safety data sheets for hazardous chemicals
Work health and safety consultation, coordination and cooperation.

Model codes of practice agreed by the Select Council on Workplace Relations are provided as guidance material until gazette in NSW:

First aid in the workplace
Construction work
Preventing falls in housing construction
Managing electrical risks at the workplace
Managing risks of hazardous chemicals in the workplace
Managing risks of plant in the workplace
Safe design of structures
Excavation work
Demolition work
Spray painting and powder coating
Abrasive blasting
Welding

The above model codes of practice are available from Safe Work Australia.

Draft codes of practice

A number of draft model codes of practice are in the process of being finalized and are provided as guidance material until approved:

Working in the vicinity of overhead and underground electric lines
Safe design manufacture import and supply of plant
Amusement devices
Scaffolds and scaffolding work
Tree trimming and removal work – crane access method
Industrial lift trucks
Formwork and false work
Managing risks of plant in rural workplaces
Cranes
Managing risks in forestry operation
Managing cash in transit security risks
Traffic management in workplaces

The draft model codes are available from Safe Work Australia.

4. Identifying Hazards and Controlling Risks

Being able to identify hazards is crucial in ensuring tasks are carried out safely. Your past experience in the workplace may help you to identify some hazards, but remember to also use the skills and knowledge of those around you to help.

Identifying hazards and controlling risk must be done continuously as new work processes, tasks, equipment and workers come into the workplace. Part of this process may be to ask your employer to employ or engage a suitably qualified occupational health and safety professional to come into the workplace to provide advice on health and safety.

Some ways to identify hazards and control risks:

Talk with workers (including contractors) who are or will be performing any tasks to identify all potential hazards and the best ways to eliminate or reduce risk.
Make sure you are aware of any high risk activities, work with new machinery or new work processes before they happen.
Understand the hazards associated with tasks you supervise and have risk controls in place before work starts. This could mean preventing work from being done while a safety issue is being resolved.
Take action to resolve health and safety issues as soon as possible. This includes escalating the issue to more senior management if necessary. Once agreement is reached on how to fix a problem, implement it as soon as possible.

5. Hierarchy of Control

Hazard Control using the “Hierarchy of Control”

Controls should be determined according to the “Hierarchy of Control” system described below. The following control elements should be utilised in the order presented and where appropriate used in conjunction.

1. Elimination

↓

2. Substitution

↓

3. Isolation

↓

4. Engineering

↓

5. Administration

↓

6. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Elimination

As the title suggests, this control measure involves eliminating or removing the risk in its entirety. For example:

Risk: High levels of manual handling when loading and unloading glassware onto trolleys from shelving.
Control: Store glassware directly onto trolleys hence eliminating the need to unload and load from the shelves.

Substitution

This form of control involves substituting a safer process or material for the hazardous process/material identified. For example:

Risk: Cleaning solution causing allergic reactions and nausea.
Control: Substituting a less toxic or non-allergenic cleaning solution for the task.

Isolation

This control involves separating the hazard or hazardous work practice from employees other work areas. This may involve sectioning off the area by erecting barriers or by relocating either the hazardous work practice or the „other‟ employees and their work practices. For example:

Risk: Excessive noise emanating from machinery.
Control: Enclosing the machinery or the personnel hence creating an isolating barrier between the hazard and the person by using a barrier.

Engineering Controls

This method of control involves designing and/or adding physical safety features to plant or equipment.

a) Equipment and Workplace Design The provision of new and/or additional equipment or redesign of a workplace can be used to control identified hazards. For example:

· Risk: Animal handling.

· Control: Hoists. Slide Boards.

· Risk: A poor clerical workstation design resulting in a risk of injury to the back, neck, shoulder and wrist.

· Control: Re-design the workstation to recommended ergonomic specifications for the personnel including the provision of equipment such as slope- boards, document holders, foot stools and ergonomic chairs.

b) Automation Fully or partially automating a process removes the need for, or reduces the risk of, performing a hazardous task. For example:

· Risk: Manual handling in washing glassware process.

· Control: Introduction of an automatic washing system.

c) Containment (ventilation, dilution, extraction) Containing or drawing away a hazard at the source so that personnel are not exposed. For example:

· Risk: Chemical fumes given off during cleaning, laboratory, or welding processes.

· Control: Construction of a local extraction system to remove the fumes at the source.

d) Guarding Guards must be provided when there is the potential for people to come into contact with hazardous situations to ensure that no part of the person (including hair, clothing etc) can be caught in the moving part. There are several different types of guards, movable/interlocked, fixed, and photoelectric beam. For example:

· Risk: Accessible high speed rotating parts on a machine

· Control: Placing appropriate guards to prevent access to the rotating parts.

Administrative Controls

This type of control is most effective when used in conjunction with measures mentioned above or as an interim control whilst more effective control measures are developed and implemented. It requires systems to be established or amended in order to control the risk presented. Most often it requires the assessment and modification of the task(s) performed. It may include measures such as:

a) Amendment or establishment of new Policy and Procedures. For example: developing documented safe work practices for a hazardous task, or implementing restrictive policy to prevent staff or students from coming in contact with identified hazards.

b) The introduction or review of existing maintenance schedules for plant and equipment, or safe work practices. This measure is used to ensure that existing plant, equipment and procedures do not deteriorate to the point where they become hazardous.

c) Limiting the exposure of personnel to elements that are only hazardous when they exceed a certain threshold. These types of hazards can include: noise, radiation, heat, chemicals, etc., and can be controlled by introducing elements as simple as job rotation.

d) Providing training and information in safe work practices and other workplace health issues so that personnel can work safely.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

PPE is not a particularly effective control method and should only be used:

a) When all other control measures are impractical; or

b) In conjunction with other more effective, control measures.

It is important to select the correct PPE for the hazard identified, and advice should be sought in this regard if you are not sure (Health and Safety ext. 4900)

The above “Hierarchy of Control” provides a basic guide for controlling hazards in the workplace. Consult your SHR and attempt to find solutions by working your way down the hierarchy. Once appropriate controls are identified it is necessary to consult senior management and the staff that will be affected by the changes. This will reduce the possibility of oversights and help to gain the support of

6. Developing a recordkeeping policy

In accordance with Principle 4 of Information Standard 40: Recordkeeping (IS40), public authorities are required to have an identifiable recordkeeping program, including documented policies and procedures.

This Public Records Brief provides guidance to Queensland public authorities on developing a recordkeeping policy.

A good recordkeeping policy will enable public authorities to:

outline how records should be made and kept, including requirements for authorized disposal
ensure compliance with legal requirements, information standards and the needs of the government (including administrative, financial and accountability) and community
formalise intentions and practices with respect to records management
communicate to all staff the importance of good recordkeeping, and
increase the ability of staff to create full and accurate records.

A recordkeeping policy also supports compliance with other requirements of IS40, including assigning responsibilities, identifying requirements for records creation and outlining the legal and administrative context for recordkeeping.

Components of a recordkeeping policy

The policy itself should provide recordkeeping directives and responsibilities clearly, in a way that is easy to understand. Detailed advice on recordkeeping procedures or tools should be included in supporting documentation.

Components of a recordkeeping policy may include:

Component	Details
Purpose	What are the aims of the policy?
Policy statement	What is the public authority’s commitment to recordkeeping?
Scope of the policy	What is the application of the policy? It should cover the entire business of the agency, and records in all formats.
Policy context	How will the recordkeeping policy relate to broader information governance within the agency?
Legislation and Standards	Recordkeeping requirements are set out in the Public Records Act 2002. For an overview of relevant legislation, standards and policies see the Queensland Government Recordkeeping Policy Framework1
Recordkeeping systems	What recordkeeping systems does the agency use?
Responsibilities	Who has recordkeeping responsibilities in the agency? What positions, individuals or departments? See Public Records Brief: Recordkeeping Responsibilities: an overview
Monitor and review of policy	What is the review date of the policy?
Authorization	The policy should be authorized by the Chief Executive. Include the date of authorization.

7. Role play: Australian Hardware (Wollongong) WHS policy and procedures

Participants: Jinwoo, Eunjin, Jiyun, HSR, Store.

Eunjin: - Dear HSR, I would like to talk about the real problem that I am not happy with: about providing and maintaining a safe and healthy environment to work!

Jinwoo: - Yes, Mr HSR, It should be providing support and training and at least supervision to employees to ensure a safe and healthy workplace. We would like to hear some of them.

HSR: - Marina, Robert. As individual employees you have to know all of workplace and health and safety policies and procedures.

Jiyun: - Where can we find them?

Store: -Every single employee has to know them and you can find them in WHS 2011 NSW policy and procedures

HSR: - That our responsibility to provide a safety workplace for our workers but that workers responsibility to take care about your wrong safety.

Jinwoo: - Yes, we also would organise some training for other workers with a purpose of encouraging others to follow healthy and safe working practices in the workplace.

HSR: - Yes you are right. Let’s organise it next Wednesday. Pl inform all our staff about

Eunjin: -Yes it will be done.

Meeting minutes

Risk	Controls	Monitoring	Timelines	Responsible
Difficulty sourcing or training skilled and experienced staff.	Targeted advertising in trade magazines and online. Promotional focus on training and development opportunities. Regular training for existing staff.	Regular investigation of competitor wages, seeking to match or better if viable from budgetary perspective.	Monthly and quarterly	store general managers and general operations managers.
Wastage or unsaleable stock from poor inventory maintenance and sales monitoring.	Continuous monitoring using in-house ERM system Daily contact with suppliers.	Daily automated monitoring (with alerts for issues) and anticipation of demand through ongoing research and analysis in consultation with market research consultants	Daily monitoring Monthly and quarterly sales and demand analysis	Store general managers, general.

8. Aspect of planning or implementation of WHS risk management or WHS legislation

Determine safe storage of Fuel

Personal Protective Equipment

Day Operations –Normal Requirements:

Safety footwear, eye protection (goggles), face protection, hand protection (gloves), overalls, breathing protection. Ensure all PPE meets relevant Australian Standards. Inspect, and replace PPE as needed.

Provide UV sun protection where required, (broad brimmed hat, UV rated clothing, SPF 30+ sunscreen, tinted safety glasses with adequate UV protection).

Safety notes

Petrol is classified as a flammable liquid. It evaporates at relatively allow temperatures and the resulting vapour is highly flammable. Petrol is toxic, potentially causing eye/skin irritation, and if swallowed. can be fatal. Diesel is classified as a combustible liquid. Diesel is less flammable than petrol, however, in high temperatures, such as a fire

Meeting minutes

Risk	Controls	Monitoring	Timelines	Responsible
Difficulty sourcing or training skilled and experienced staff.	Targeted advertising in trade magazines and online. Promotional focus on training and development opportunities. Regular training for existing staff.	Regular investigation of competitor wages, seeking to match or better if viable from budgetary perspective.	Monthly and quarterly	store general managers and general operations managers.
Wastage or unsaleable stock from poor inventory maintenance and sales monitoring.	Continuous monitoring using in-house ERM system Daily contact with suppliers.	Daily automated monitoring (with alerts for issues) and anticipation of demand through ongoing research and analysis in consultation with market research consultants	Daily monitoring Monthly and quarterly sales and demand analysis	Store general managers, general.

Just Jin

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BSBWHS501A Ensure a safe workplace Assessment Task 2

1. Managing WHS risk in your workplace