Workplace safety and your responsibilities

Australian employers are required by law to provide their employees, contractors and those who visit their facilities with a safe and healthy workplace. Ensuring that your business complies with these duties will prevent prosecution or fines, and will also help to maintain staff.

The scope of the responsibility requires employers to:

1. Provide and maintain a safe working environment at all times, including control frequency, pace and entry to high risk areas
2. Provide and maintain safe systems of work
3. Provide all workers with access to adequate facilities such as clean toilets, cool and clean water and hygienic eating areas
4. Ensure safe, quality systems for work on and around machinery and equipment
5. Ensure all exits and fire exits are accessible at all times
6. Provide all employees with the adequate training, information, supervision and instruction to perform their work in a safe and healthy manner without any risk to their health
7. Monitor employees health and safety at work, whilst also maintaining any relevant records and information regarding the employees health and requirements
8. Provide appropriate first aid services and amenities
9. Ensure appropriate safety measures regarding the storage or transport of plant or substances
10. Comply with any legal regulations specific to your workplace and nature of work

Failure to comply with workplace health and safety regulations can result in heavy penalties, ranging up to $1,075,050 for a Body Corporate and $215,000 for an individual. Australia law requires the development and implementation of systems specific to your workplace and nature of work to ensure the safety of your employees, contractors and non-employees at all times.

One of the best ways to meet your duty of care as an employer is through OHS Risk Management. Identifying all hazards that may arise as a result of work and which present a risk to health and safety makes it possible to implement and monitor systems of control. Please note that the above is not an exhaustive list of what your duty as an employer requires. For more information on how you can ensure your workplace is safe and healthy, book a workplace assessment here.