Work Health and Safety

WHS – What it Means for You

Introduction Everyone has a right to be safe at work, including volunteers.

Volunteers play a vital role in communities across Australia every day and Work Health and Safety (or WHS) laws help to protect volunteers when they are carrying out work.

Work Health and Safety laws used to be different in each jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions volunteers were given the same protections as paid workers in the workplace and in other jurisdictions volunteers were considered visitors or ‘others’ in the workplace.

On 1 January 2012 the Commonwealth, and most States and Territories adopted new Work Health and Safety laws. The same WHS laws will be adopted by Tasmania by 2013. Under these new laws volunteers are given the same status and therefore the same protections, as all other workers.

What is Work Health and Safety ?

You may also know Work Health and Safety as ‘Occupational Health and Safety’ or ‘OHS’. They are one and the same. Work health and safety affects every Australian workplace.

Whether a person is a volunteer, a paid worker, a work experience student or a contractor (or any other type of worker you can think of) they have a right to have their health and safety protected when they are carrying out work. People who are affected by work, for instance clients you assist when you are working, also have a right to have their health and safety protected or not put at risk by the work being carried out.

Organisations like ours who engage workers of all types also have work health and safety rights. Primarily, organisations have a right to expect that all workers and visitors to their workplaces will take care and co-operate with work health and safety rules.

Work health and safety laws protect these rights.

Work Health and Safety Laws

All Australian States, Territories and the Commonwealth have laws that aim to prevent workplace death, injury and illness. But, as mentioned at the beginning of this presentation, work health and safety laws have recently started to become harmonised across Australia.

The main objective of the new WHS laws is to provide a balanced and nationally consistent framework to secure the health and safety of workers and workplaces. Some of the ways the laws do this is by:

protecting workers, including volunteers, from harm by requiring duty holders to eliminate or minimise risks associated with work, whether that work is paid or unpaid

providing for fair and effective representation, consultation, cooperation and issue resolution in relation to work health and safety at work

promoting the provision of advice and education about work health and safety, and

providing a framework for continuous improvement and progressively higher standards of work health and safety.

The main responsibility for ensuring health and safety at work is placed on persons conducting businesses or undertakings (PCBUs).

A PCBU is the organisation who you work for. For simplicity, we will refer to them as the organisation (rather than the PCBU).

Work health and safety laws require organisations to think about and implement ways to make sure its workers are provided the highest level of protection against harm to their health, welfare and safety at work, so far is reasonably practicable.

The new work health and safety laws means that now organisations must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their workers, just as they do for their other workers.

Who is covered by WHS Laws?

Who is NOT covered by WHS Laws?

What you need to know

Under WHS law ‘health’ means physical and mental health. The organisation you are volunteering for has to ensure that when you are doing work for them you are safe from psychological injury including from things like bullying, so far as is reasonably practicable.

The organisation must also manage risks by eliminating risks to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable. If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks, they must minimise those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.

The organisation you volunteer for may help to ensure your safety by doing a wide variety of things. This may include:

• providing you with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment, where required

• giving you instructions or training on how to do your work safely

• ensuring that the machinery or plant that you use meets safety standards or requirements, or

• confirming that you have the relevant qualifications to carry out the work they give you. For example, first aid certificates or a current and valid driver’s license.

What you need to do

YOU have a duty under the WHS Act to take reasonable care for your own health and safety. Taking reasonable care means doing what a reasonable person would do in the circumstances having regards to things like:

your knowledge

your role

yours skills and the resources available to you

your qualifications

the information that you have, and

the consequences to health and safety of a failure to act in the circumstances.

Taking Reasonable CareTaking reasonable care is simple. Just:

• follow all reasonable instructions given to you as far as you are able to,

• cooperate with any reasonable policy or procedure that the organisation has given you, and

• talk to your managers if you have any concerns about your health and safety or that of others in relation to your work.

Other ways of making sure you take reasonable care are:

• carrying out tasks within the role you have been given

• not doing tasks that you do not have the skills to undertake, and

• don’t do anything that would be obviously unsafe.

Some examples of the things you can do to make sure what you do is safe include:

• Reading, understanding and cooperating with the policies and procedures provided to you by the organisation you volunteer for.

• If you are tired and your volunteer work involves driving, call the organisation and say that you are unable to volunteer today.

If you are driving a client around in a car, ensure that you and your client wear your seatbelts and obey the road rules.

If you are teaching someone to ride a bike, make sure they wear a helmet and sturdy shoes.

WHS and Workers

Talking about Work Health and Safety

Organisations must also consult with all their workers, including volunteers, about work health and safety matters. Consultation must include giving you opportunity to provide ideas about how to make you and others as safe as possible when you are volunteering. This can be done in various ways.

Sending out regular newsletters via mail or email which feature work health and safety news, information and updates.

Regularly updating the volunteer section of its notice board or website with information, including its latest safe work policies and procedures

Having a suggestions email box for you to send suggestions to about ways to do work safely and other matters

Holding regular meetings to talk with you about the work that you do and how to do it in the safest way. This may include information about emergency plans, exit routes and facilities, and

Holding toolbox talks where specific health and safety topics relevant to the task at hand are discussed.

What if Something Happens

Issue Resolution

If a work health and safety matter is still not resolved after following the procedure, an inspector may be called to attend the workplace to assist in resolving the issue.

Things to RememberSo there are a few things to remember about Work Health and Safety:

Firstly: The WHS laws are designed to provide you, as a volunteer, with the highest level of protection. The organisation you volunteer for has responsibility to ensure it does all it reasonably can to keep you safe when you are working for them. If an organisation is found to have not met this duty, they may be fined or prosecuted.

Secondly: A safe workplace is most effectively achieved if everyone contributes to finding ways to manage risks and works together to keep the workplace safe.

And lastly: If you take reasonable care as a volunteer worker you can’t be prosecuted or fined and have nothing to fear.

In fact, prosecution of volunteers is quite unlikely under WHS laws. In some jurisdictions work health and safety duties have been placed on volunteers for more than two decades but there have been no reported prosecutions of volunteers under those laws.

For more information on WHS laws, see the Essential Guide to Work Health and Safety for Volunteers , located on the Safe Work Australia website.

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