Consultative Arrangements and Occupational Health and Safety - Assignment Example

Memo To: From: Date: Subject: Consultative Arrangements According to the most recent Acts and Regulations, employers have a legal obligation and duty to engage with employees about Occupational Health and Safety. This is affirmed by the most recent Victorian legislation and parliamentary documents where the most recent OHS act is the Occupational Health and Safety Act No. 107 of 2004, while the most recent OHS regulation is the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007. According to the act, the duty of the employer to consult includes duty of employers to consult with employees. Part 4 section 35 of the act states several instances where the employer as is reasonably practicable consults with employees. To meet the requirements of the act, the employer should consult when identifying or assessing hazards or risks to health or safety at the workplace, when making decisions about the measures to be taken to control risks to health or safety at the place of work and when making decisions about the adequacy of facilities for the welfare of the employees. Furthermore, the employers should consult when making decisions about the procedures for resolving health or safety issues at the place of work, consulting with employees, monitoring the health of employees and the conditions at the place of work and providing information and training to employee. Employees are also expected to consult when determining the membership of any health and safety committee and when proposing changes that may affect the health or safety of employee in the workplace, the plant or anything used in the place of work and conduct of the work performed. Employees are to be consulted through the employer sharing with the employee information concerning matters where employer is required to consult, in addition, the employee should give the employee a reasonable opportunity to express their views about the matter and take into account the employee’s views. Direct involvement of the employee is however not compulsory if the employees are represented by a health and safety representative. The consultation should adhere to the agreed procedures, hence highlighting the different roles and responsibilities of the different parties. OHS Consultation Statement Commitment T. Building & Plumbing Pty Ltd. appreciates and promotes effective and open communication and acknowledges its fundamental role for effective and quality management of Occupational Health and Safety as well as good industrial relations. Communication and Consultation enables T. Building & Plumbing Pty Ltd. to accomplish legal and organizational requirements on Consultation, such as Occupational Health and Safety Act, of 2004, section 35 and ensure that the concerned stakeholders such as employees, employee representatives, health and safety personnel , managers, OHS committee, supervisors, contractors, clients, community or any other interested party are accorded a genuine opportunity to effectively participate in decision making on subjects that are likely to affect their environment. Establishment of Consultation Arrangements The establishment of consultation arrangements by the company is intended to foster the health and safety of the company’s employees and any other person who may directly or otherwise deal with the company. The major objectives are: Formulate, review and disseminate to employees of the company and when applicable, to other stakeholders the rules, standards and procedures concerned with OHS. Foster co-operation and communication between the company and its employees in initiating, developing and implementing strategies designed to guarantee safe and healthy working environment. Roles and Responsibilities of the Management The role of the management is to provide and maintain as is reasonable practical a working environment that is safe and without risks to health, In conformity with the Occupational Health and Safety Act, of 2004, Part 3, General duties relating to health and safety. In addition, the management’s role and responsibilities according to Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, of 2007 identify hazards to healthy and safety, control risks, isolation of plant and services, erect signs, establish emergency procedures and provide information, instruction and training to employees. Role of OHS Committee The role of the Occupational Health and Safety Committee is to facilitate co-operation and communication between the employees and employer in initiate, developing and implementing strategies to guarantee the health and safety at the place of work and to create, evaluate and disseminate to the employees the rules, standards and procedures which are concerned with health and safety that are to be carried out or complied with at the place of work. Moreover, the OHS Committee shall ensure staff consultation and communication, where the committee shall bring to the attention of all stakeholders OHS issues, and ensure that the issues are discussed on the agenda of most staff meetings held at the facility. The OHS Committee shall also address Occupational Health and safety issues raised in the meetings, on by any interested persons and ensure that action is taken. The OHS committee shall also be charged with the responsibility of disseminating OHS related data and information. Procedure of solving problems Problems that may arise in relation to OHS matters shall be solved in consideration of Part 2.2—Issue Resolution Procedures of Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007. When an OHS issue is reported, within a reasonable time span, the employer shall meet the affected employee/s or their representatives or health and safety representative, having accurate and specific data concerning the location and number of employees affected by the issue; and whether appropriate temporary measures are desirable or probable. After reaching an agreement, the employer shall inform the affected employees in writing about the OHS issue and the agreed solution. The concerned parties are at liberty to inform other interested persons, in an approved form about the agreed solutions. In any party feels aggrieved, even after reasonably several attempts to solve the problem, then they can inform the necessary authorities. Review of Consultation Arrangements The employer and the employees have been in agreement on the period that these Occupational Health and Safety consultation arrangements shall be monitored and reviewed, i.e. biannual basis. This is aimed at ensuring that consultation with all stakeholders is effective while ensuring that all safety issues are being addressed. Signed: Date: Hest Pty Ltd Building Company Memo To: From: Site Manager Date: Subject: Hazards, XYZ city construction The site Manager was instructed to identify, analyze, evaluate and treat the risks arising from constructing units in XYZ city, so as to enable the construction to continue. In order to achieve the above objective, it is necessary to investigate incidents for prevention. The Site Manager shall consult with the OHS committee as well as with the representatives of the employees and the affected employees, while considering regulatory requirements. The manager, shall visit the site and make an informed assessment of the hazards, and identify the possible risks and hazards. The site manager shall also consider the design of the constructions and the stage of construction. To communicate and consult, the site manager shall request the OHS committee to make assessment and make written and possibly oral submissions of their view. The affected staff shall also be given written notices informing them of the dangers of disobeying instructions. Moreover, the company management shall be informed of the hazards in written form, with the objective of giving precedence over other activities the fixing handrails on scaffolding, edge protection on the balcony and handrails. The site managed shall utilize diverse evidences and sources of information such as the available documents and references as well as regulatory documents such as Part 5.1—Construction of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007 and the Code of Practice -Prevention of Falls at Workplace. To analyze the hazards, the site manager shall first reference to the findings and the recommendations of the WorkSafe Inspector. In addition, the site manager shall refer to safe work method statement, and also refer to the building plan and the communication files between the site manager, the affected employees, the OHS department, WorkSafe inspector and the management. The risks shall be identified as per the definitions offered in the recent Victorian legislation and parliamentary documents, the Occupational Health and Safety Act No. 107 of 2004, and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007 as well as Occupational Health and Safety (Prevention of Falls) Regulations of the year 2000. The risks shall be analyzed according to the worst case condition, on possibilities and chances of the risk actually occurring. Moreover, the extent of the risks shall be evaluated through site inspection and referring to the building plans. To identify the options of controlling risks and selecting the best options to threat the risks, the input of every concerned stakeholder shall be sought. The employees and experts in the field shall be requested to offer their diverse views as the options for controlling the risks. To select the best option, the management, OHS committee and the experts in the building sector shall meet and consider the forwarded options. After deliberations, they shall then decide of the most viable and most practical alternative to control the risk, while considering examples of good practice which have been implemented in the industry both from experience and the literature. The effectiveness of the risk control measures shall be monitored through several ways, such as improved situational awareness and safety culture by the concerned employees and achieving compliance to legal and regulatory requirements on the site. Moreover, the effectiveness of the measures shall be gauged through reduced rate of occurrences of fatalities and major injury accidents, reduction and/or elimination of losing man-hours in relation to work related injury and ill-health. Hierarchy of control can help in the risk management process, where the order of priority aids in ensuring that the most viable risk control alternative is chosen. At the first level is the elimination, where the options which get rid of the hazard altogether are considered. In this case, if the hazard is removed, all the other management controls shall no longer be required. The next level is the substitution, where hazardous substance or work practice could be substituted with a less hazardous alternative. Engineering Controls is the next level and involves provision of barriers, machine guarding, mechanical aids, ventilation or insulation to isolate a hazard from the staff. Administrative Control involves the establishment of policies, procedures and work practices intended to decrease an employee’s exposure to risk. The last level is the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which involves protecting the employee’s body from hazards. The company must document its risk management processes to conform to the legal and regulatory requirements, and provide a platform for future references. To meet legislative requirement for consultation and communication, there should be written evidence to confirm meeting and consultation between the employer and the employee or the OHS representative. Information and data collection, requires availability of the collected information and reports of workplace inspections, while notification of incidences should be supported by documentary evidences that the employer has notified the authorities in case of any incident, this should also be supported by an hazard register T. Building & Plumbing Pty Ltd.  Control OHS Risk T. Building & Plumbing Pty Ltd is dedicated to ensuring that its employees work in a safe environment and avoid occurrences of risks. The organization appreciates and promotes efficient risk management methodologies for effective and quality management of Occupational Health and Safety as well as good industrial relations. Accordingly, the organizations’ approach to risk management is based on the principle that risk is defined as the likelihood of unsatisfactory outcome.  Risks play an important role as a key influence on the failure or success of a project. The company therefore manages risks by applying assiduous effort to risks elimination or reduction. While appreciating that not all risks can be totally eliminated entirely, it is vital to decrease the exposure of a project to risk to acceptable levels. The organization appreciated that risk management consumes vital resources such as time and effort, but the results are significant, since lack of risk management amplifies the danger of a failure. The organization’s approach to managing risks is diverse. Among the approaches is that every employee or person involved with the company assists in identifying risks. After a risk is identified, the risks is assessed by the OHS committee, the management and the employees representatives in terms the risks’ probability of occurrence and the probable resulting loss. The organization then prioritises risks based on the risk exposures calculation where a common metric is used to calculate the risk exposure of every risk. Having assigned the exposure value to a risk, the organization gives precedence to the management of high exposure risks, where all stakeholders are invited to offer suggestions and solutions to minimize risks. Having arrived at the best solution to manage the risk, individual plans which entail specific actions to be performed by specific persons within definite time frames are developed for the high priority risks to decrease their exposure. The progress is then monitored frequently, and necessary alterations made, which change the risk exposure therefore continuously changing the priorities. The risks management approach at T. Building & Plumbing Pty Ltd, to be successful subscribes to a methodology founded on a hierarchy of activities and tasks. The highest level is defining risks level which is concerned with the identification of risks and assessing and prioritising risks. The second level is the managing risks level concerned with planning, acting, monitoring, reporting and adjusting. The organization also considers the hazard register as a vital document. This is because of the several purposes of the document such as maintaining a record of identified health hazards, exposure monitoring and health surveillance and the control measures. Furthermore, the hazard registers provides a record for availing risk management information to the concerned stakeholders and persons who may come into contact with health hazards and associated risks at the workplace.  In addition, the company considers the principles of the hierarchy of control, where the order of priority is considered in choosing the most appropriate risk control alternative is chosen. At the first level is the elimination, where the options which get rid of the hazard altogether are considered. In this case, if the hazard is removed, all the other management controls shall no longer be required. The next level is the substitution, where hazardous substance or work practice could be substituted with a less hazardous alternative. Engineering Controls is the next level and involves provision of barriers, machine guarding, mechanical aids, ventilation or insulation to isolate a hazard from the staff. Administrative Control involves the establishment of policies, procedures and work practices intended to decrease an employee’s exposure to risk. The last level is the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which involves protecting the employee’s body from physical hazards. In developing and selecting risk treatment options, the team members and the stakeholders put it into consideration that the input of every person is crucial. And that everyone should be consulted, so as to arrive at an agreeable document, where all persons feel that they are part of the OHS process, and their concerns have been addressed. Read More