Inspire Success

What exactly will OHS Harmonisation mean for you and your business and what will the penalties and fines under the new laws be?

The purpose of the WHS Act 2011 is to harmonise existing Occupational Health and Safety legislation across Australia through the creation of uniform health and safety obligations. Our later article discusses which states will commence this new legislation from January 1st 2012 and which will be delayed.

While dates have been set for commencement it has been announced that businesses will be able to postpone implementing new occupational health and safety regulations by up to twelve months, if the regulations require them having to make significant changes and require a long period of time.

Federal Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans has stated that Safe Work Australia has arrangements to assist businesses in the transition into the new system on January 1. Evans said the extension would be granted to businesses that have to fulfil the model regulations which subsequently would require the completion of several duties.

The new WHS Act 2011 seeks to:-

• Protect workers and other persons against harm to their health, safety and welfare through the elimination or minimisation of risks arising from work or from specified types of substances or plant
• Providing for fair and effective workplace representation, consultation, co-operation and issue resolution in relation to work health and safety
• Promote the provision of advice, information, education and training in relation to work health and safety
• Provide a framework for continuous improvement and application of higher standards of work health and safety

In this article we will focus on the increase in potential penalties and fines – under the new laws, companies face fines up to $3 million per offence, while individuals face fines of $600,000 or 5 years in jail.

What happens if a serious injury, illness or dangerous incident occurs?

Under the work health and safety laws, incidents such as fatalities, serious injuries and illnesses, and dangerous incidents must be notified to WorkCover immediately, and incident records must be kept for five years. 

If you are the person with management of control of the workplace, you must also preserve the incident scene until an inspector attends, or directs otherwise. Render assistance, if it is required, and allow police and ambulance officers to fulfil their functions.

If someone suffers an injury or illness where workers compensation is, or may be payable, contact your insurer within 48 hours. 

What is a serious injury or illness?

A serious injury or illness includes:-

• an injury or illness that requires immediate treatment as an ‘in-patient in hospital’
• amputation
• serious head, eye or burn injuries
• de-gloving or scalping
• spinal injury
• loss of bodily function
• serious laceration
• exposure to a substance, which requires medical treatment within 48 hours  

What is a dangerous incident?

A dangerous incident exposes someone to a serious risk, such as: 

• the uncontrolled escape, spillage or leakage of a substance 
• uncontrolled implosion, explosion or fire
• electric shock
• the uncontrolled escape of gas, steam or pressurised substance
• falls from height of any machinery, equipment, substance or the like
• damage to any plant that requires authorisation in accordance with the WHS Regulations (eg registrable plant) 
• collapse, malfunction or damage to any authorised plant
• the collapse of a structure or excavation (including shoring)
• an inrush of water, mud or gas
• the interruption of underground ventilation.  

How will you be penalised for breaching your duties?

What is reckless conduct?
A person engages in reckless conduct if they, without reasonable excuse, engage in conduct that exposes an individual under their duty of care to the risk of death or serious injury or illness.

What is breach of primary duty?
A breach of primary duty is when a person engages in actions or omissions that expose others to risk of serious injury/illness.

What is breach of regulatory duty?

A breach of regulatory duty is when a person fails to comply with a duty.  

Is this something that could be an issue at your place? Inspire Success is all about implementing practical solutions that help create high performing workplaces which are customer focussed and free of conflict - no matter what size your business is. Contact Rae Phillips at Inspire Success for further information raephillips@inspire-success.com

Last year, a Telstra employee made a successful workers' compensation claim against Telstra because she fell twice while working from home and claimed her injuries occurred in the course of her employment. Telstra were found liable to pay her workers compensation.

As a result of this and other similar cases, many employers have had concerns about allowing their employees work from home.  Working from home arrangements don’t have to be to be feared but the risks do need to be managed carefully.

Under NSW OH&S laws, the employer is expected to maintain a working environment, equipment and systems of work that are ‘safe and without risks to health’. That includes your employees working at home. The employees working from home should have the equipment they need just as if they were in the office – a chair, desk, computer, adequate lighting, clear access to exits, a first aid kit and knowledge of safe working procedures.

What do your responsibilities include?
• provide or maintain a working environment that is a safe and without risks to health
• provide or maintain equipment and systems of work that are safe and without risks to health
• provide the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary to ensure the health and safety at work of workers
• make arrangements for ensuring the safe use, handling, storage and transport of equipment and substances.

It is important to put in writing agreed procedures regarding working arrangements particularly regarding hours of work and access (eg. to check that the workplace is safe and that safe systems of work are in place, or to review systems and procedures following an accident).

A workplace assessment / risk assessment of the home environment is another step in identifying health and safety hazards, and deal with them. The person doing the assessment should focus on the part of the home which is used as a workplace - or you can give employees a checklist for self-audit rather than send someone in to tick the boxes.

This checklist – which confirms there is an appropriate desk, chair and lamp, for example, and that electrical cords have been tagged and tested – must be completed and handed back. The idea is that employees who want to work from home would need to complete a self-assessment form and sign up a document that frees you, the employer, from liability in the event of an OH&S issue.

Under NSW OH&S laws the following are some steps to follow when an employee requests working from home:-

1. Establish whether the duties are suitable for work from home – if special equipment needs to be used or work procedures followed that are not appropriate for home then the job may not be suitable for being done at home;
2. Establish what equipment will be necessary for the employee to safely work from home – ensure employee’s desk, chair and computer are suitable. Check if any other equipment is needed by the employee. NSW Regulations require that all places of work have a first aid kit. A basic (type C) kit is sufficient for most home-based work situations;
3. Establish that the home working environment is healthy and safe – ensure there is sufficient lighting, exits are clear, there is a smoke detector, sufficient power points (ensure power points are not overloaded) and if an earth leakage protect device is required;
4. Establish that the employee who will be working from home has the information and training necessary to do the work safely – ensure they have been trained on safe working procedures to prevent the occurrence of injuries;
5. Establish agreed hours of work and communication procedures -Establish the days and hours on which work from home can be done and agree on procedures for recording work hours, including actual starting and finishing times (this is important for workers compensation purposes). It is also useful to establish the way in which performance will be monitored and assessed and to establish communication procedures to ensure that appropriate information is passed between the person working from home and his or her co-workers and management;
6. Revise your workplace rehabilitation program – you may want to include a commitment to provision of suitable duties at the main workplace when this is necessary as a rehabilitation strategy, and to clarify arrangements for monitoring work from home rehabilitation programs.

It is important to monitor your employees working from home arrangements – things change, standards may drop so ensure there is open communication with these employees and a clear procedure where the employee reports any health and safety concerns or any incidents to you.

The Fair Work and Anti-Discrimination legislation allows employees to request flexible working arrangements in certain situations, so as an employer you need to have reasonable business grounds to refuse a request. If you do refuse a request inform your employee of the reasons and document these, keeping all records around this.

At Inspire Success, all our people work from home and we  use a home based work agreement to outline who is responsible for what and get the expectations clear from the start.

Is this something that could be an issue at your place? Inspire Success is all about implementing practical solutions that help create high performing workplaces which are customer focussed and free of conflict - no matter what size your business is. Contact Rae Phillips at Inspire Success for further information raephillips@inspire-success.com

For the next few months we will discuss a different safety topic for IT within your company. This month we look at the office desktop and the security issues to be mindful of.

We all know that IT security is extremely important, it is essential to protect your business from a data breach. Here are our TOP 12 tips to help keep your confidential information secure on office desktops.

1. Every employee should have their own profile set up and all logins should be protected with strong passwords which need to be changed every 4-6 weeks;
2. Every time employees leave their desk, they should log off. Screen savers should also be set to log users off after a few minutes of inactivity;
3. Login details and passwords should not be written on pieces of paper and never written on a post it and stuck to computer screens;
4. Educate staff about your IT security, keep up to date with what scams are happening currently in the computer world and let staff know what to be careful of and monitor this;
5. All information on a business network should be saved to a central location to reduce risk;
6. Have a good privacy policy and make protecting sensitive data a part of the company culture;
7. Use a good firewall and a secure wireless connection;
8. Keep anti-virus and anti-spy ware software up to date. Most small businesses have anti-virus and anti-spy ware software in place, but forget or neglect to make sure they have the latest versions or the latest updates, which can open the business up to all sorts of data security breaches;
9. Keeping computers up-to-date individually is time consuming and can create inconsistencies in the business. Having a network server centralising the rollout of software patches and updates makes managing a network far easier;
10. Make sure you and your employees only download applications that come from reliable sources. Because applications (e.g., games, mobile apps) may contain viruses, spy ware etc, it's important to know and trust the source of an application before downloading it;
11. If you outsource any critical functions or store information offsite, ensure you vet third-party security practices such as cloud providers or ISPs. You are still responsible for that data and should ensure the third party is secure.;
12. Have very specific policy developed around this area of your business. Set standards with new employees, check often and ensure that you follow your policy to the T.

Is this something that could be an issue at your place? Inspire Success is all about implementing practical solutions that help create high performing workplaces which are customer focussed and free of conflict - no matter what size your business is. Contact Rae Phillips at Inspire Success for further information raephillips@inspire-success.com

The harmonisation of OHS laws across Australia is in process and is being introduced in order to standardise the state/territory based system we have in place at present. The Commonwealth and each state and territory government have agreed to harmonise their work health and safety laws, including Regulations and Codes of Practice, so that they are similar in each jurisdiction.

As you may have heard, the implementation of the new WHS Act is not going smoothly with some regions deciding to implement the new laws at different times rather than the date of 01/01/12 as had been planned for. This will make life difficult for some Australian businesses, in particular those who cross state borders who will be faced with complying with current OHS legislation and then the new legislation.

Update on status of WHS Act in States
ACT - Model law passed and expected to commence 1/1/12
NSW - Model law passed and expected to commence 1/1/12
VIC - No law before the parliament. VIC Government has confirmed that it will defer to 1/1/13
Tasmania – Have introduced model legislation to Parliament but date of commencement not confirmed
SA – WHS will be delayed
NT – Model law passed and expected to commence 1/1/2012
QLD – Model law passed and expected to commence 1/1/2012
WA -  WHS will be delayed

NSW has confirmed a 1 January 2012 commencement date for the WHS Act, and has approved $550,000 in training grants to get businesses up to speed with the new legislation. Queensland will continue with the 1 January 2012 commencement and has enacted 11 of the new Codes of Practice while amending 24 of its existing State codes. Commonwealth parliament passed the Work Health and Safety Bill 2011, which will cover employers under the Comcare scheme. The Commonwealth legislation will come into effect on 1 January 2012.

While harmonisation is delayed in some states it will happen and will affect your business. However, some businesses can delay the new laws by twelve months. Federal Workplace Relations, Minister Chris Evans, announced in November 2011 that Safe Work Australia has arrangements to help businesses move to the new system from January 1. "The transitional arrangements will apply to the model occupational health and safety regulations and provide delayed commencement of up to 12 months or more where the new laws result in a new or significantly different set of duties," Senator Evans said.

For more information on WHS legislation http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx  Contact Inspire Success if you would like to discuss how this affects your business.