HLTWS004 Manage Work Health and Safety 1

HLTWHS004 MANAGE WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY

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HLTWHS004 MANAGE WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY

This unit, HLTWHS004 Manage work health and safety describes the knowledge and

skills that are essential to establishing, maintaining and evaluating work health and safety

WHS policies, programs and procedures in the appropriate work area as in accordance to

WHS legislative requirements (Anon, 2018). This unit applied to employees who, as part of

their role, are responsible for WHS, including workers with responsible under WHS

legislation, persons undertaking a business or conducting (PCBUs), or their officers (as

specified by relevant legislation). It involves information on how to:

 Maintain and evaluate WHS

 Facilitate cooperation, consultation and communication

 Establish work safety and health practices

 Monitor compliance with risk control processes

Access and interpret legislation, regulation, code of conduct and

workplace policies and procedures for WHS

Work health and safety legislation (WHS) is one of Australia’s most important pieces of

legislation dealing with the workplace environment. It discusses the basic rights to a healthy

and safe working environment for all workers.

(a) WHS legislation and regulation

The WHS legislation consists of the WHS Act model, regulations, codes of practice and

enforcement and compliance and policy at the national level. The Australian government

created this template legislation to harmonize occupational health and safety laws across

Australia. The legislation must be passed by Parliament in each state and territory in order to

be legally binding. The purpose of harmonising the legislation and regulation is to:

 Protect employees’ health and safety

 Enhance workplace safety results

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 Decrease company compliance costs

 Strengthen performance of regulatory agencies

(b) Code of conduct

A code of conduct is a set of principles, norms, values, or behavioral rules that govern

a workplace's decisions, practices, and work processes. Through protecting their rights and

ensuring that fair standards are observed, the code of conduct must facilitate the protection of

individual. The code of conduct may differ between the departments of community services;

however, most community services have a code of conduct that encourages, transparency,

ethical conduct, dignity open information sharing, and respect, and privacy.

(c) Workplace policies and procedures

The number and type of processes, policies, and procedures will vary depending on

the hazards and nature of the work in the particular environment of community services in

which you work. A WHS rule is a written statement of the dedication of your employer to a

healthy and safe workplace. In consultation with staff, these policies should be formulated

and the roles and responsibilities of management and employees should be clearly outlined in

order to achieve compliance with WHS legislation. The guidelines for community services

are reports that provide specific instructions on how to meet the WHS policy specifications.

Some of the procedures and policies that may be used are:

 Manual handling of objects and people

 Infection control

 Incident investigation and reporting

 Hazardous management

Develop procedure for ongoing hazard identification, assessment

and control of associated risk

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Risk assessment and control requires a consistent team approach concerning all

individuals affected by the threat. People working in the area where the threat is present will

often have useful knowledge and insight that will lead to a more thorough evaluation and

implementation of the best control measures (Long et al., 2012). Using a risk assessment and

control protocol allows individuals to conduct the risk management process at the same high

standard at all times. Some of risk control procedure and workplace assessment should

outline:

 Threats assessment and priorities

 Individual duties and roles

 The methods for assessing the threat

 Required consultation, interaction, documentation and reporting

 Implementation of the hierarchy control

 Recommendations about how and when to review the outcomes of the risk

management threats.

Ensure risk control and hazard-specific procedures are consistence with the

hierarchy of control and are monitored to support compliance with

legislative and regulatory requirements

Daily access to WHS data is necessary for compliance with regulation requirements

for policies, processes and work practices. Territory or state regulators provide valuable

resources to help you comply with the laws of the WHS. Duty of care defines the legal

obligation that organizations and individuals have to foresee and act on potential causes of

illness or injury that may occur in or as a result of their actions in their work environment. A

person or organization should make every effort to eliminate or mitigate the potential cause

of damage.

Identify requirements for expert WHS advice, and

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request this advice as required

To development of control is considered to list in three levels of control which include:

(i) Choosing the best control measure; do not put the risk in the workplace. At the planning

stage of a service, system or position used, try to achieve this. In the early stages, when you

model the hazard, you will find that the price will be lower.

(ii) Substitute the hazard; a time you have to apply certain process to complete a task, like

risk isolation and change equipments at work place and work process.

(iii) Administration controls; administrative restrictions apply to procedures that change. For

example, if you don't have any other chemicals that can perform a processing task and you

don't have the funds to isolate the risk or use another product to perform the process,

changing procedures sometimes is the only option you have to control the risk.

Develop and provide consultative WHS activities to provide

advice in relation to work health and safety issues

One of the goals of the WHS Act is to promote a working environment where there

can be collaborative and consultative partnerships between PCBUs and staff on aspects of

occupational health and safety. These relationships allow essential information to flow

through all areas of a workplace. Under WHS law, the design and provision of procedures,

processes and activities for transmitting and receiving WHS data is required. It is essential

that the activity allows the sharing of information as well as an avenue for participation and

feedback when developing activities to provide advice to WHS. The establishment in your

workplace of the correct consultation framework ensures that the distribution of information

is systematic and not person-dependent. In reliably remembering and communicating vital

information, this method recognizes people's limitations. High quality, accurate and reliable

data is delivered each time by getting systems in place, such as meeting minutes and

reporting lines.
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Monitor processes for ensuring that workers have an opportunity to

contribute feedback on health and safety issues

In order to provide get best outcomes from workers, WHS highlights that to operate

effectively, you should;

Develop work procedures. Control measures require protocols to ensure consistent work for

all employees. Create appropriate steps, including security issues, and create improvements

according to the policies and procedures of your organizations.

Provide the team with appropriate instruction, information and training. Bridge the gap

between the understanding of the manager and what they should learn. Providing the

necessary level of training, guidance and knowledge to support the teams and workers. Be

transparent, honest and free.

Provide supervision. A higher level of supervision is expected when employees are

inexperienced. If not, you may just need to direct them and provide them with the tools and

guidance to be able to perform their tasks.

Document outcomes of consultation and communication to workers

Workplace communication is the exchange of verbal and nonverbal information from one

person to another. Effective communication is a significant aspect of health and safety at

work. Effective communication improves a workplace's efficiency and profitability and is

also an important aspect of reducing and settling disputes. The organization management

could hire worker who will arrange for information sessions, equipment demonstration and

invite all the workers that are affected by the change that is to be applied. The main duty of

the hire worker is to provide updates and information that is accessible and of ease to use to

all workers. Also carries out the storage and provide summary of the feedback. The hired
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worker is to hand out feedback data and make requests for the data to be returned within a

certain period of time.

Develop and interpret processes to ensure that responsibilities and duties are

documented and accountability processes are in place

To measure these control areas, you can take the following measures to ensure that

they remain effective and include:

 Make team leaders responsible for health and safety – It means ensuring that the

workers have the appropriate resources to keep their work area safe,

 Regular review of work procedures and internal and external consultation with other

team members,

 Having effective interaction and communication by ensuring that all parties receive

and promote regular feedback through open communication,

 Keeping up to date information including information on hazards, risk assessments,

training and skills.

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References

Anon, 2018. European Week for Safety and Health at Work 2018: manage dangerous

substances. European Union News, pp.European Union News, Oct 25, 2018.

Long, J. et al., 2012. How do Australian optometrists manage work‐related physical

discomfort? Clinical and Experimental Optometry, 95(6), pp.606–614.