Work, Health and Safety Risk Assessment Assignment Sample

Subject Name : Health and Safety

Workplace, Health and Safety

Table of Contents

Introduction:

Application of risk assessment:

Concepts that underpin work health and safety assessment in Australia:

Risk for vulnerable populations, and provide recommendations to resolve the work safety risks identified.

Recommendation:

References:

Introduction:

The Occupational health and safety Act, 1984 (OSH Act) has allowed establishment of health and safety at workplace. There is a commission that takes care of health and safety at workplace with proper examination of the implementation of the same within the organisation. The main function of the Commission is to make sure that the employers, government and Unions are properly taking care of their employees who work under hazardous conditions. To be able to fulfil this function the commission has been given special powers to make sure that the process is properly forwarded.

Likewise, the Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act, 1981 is laid down. This Act governs workers who have been injured during the course of their work or at the time of employment (Beattie et al. 2019). The present assignment deals with the concepts that underpin health and safety assessment in Australia, risk awareness in vulnerable population within the workplace and finally application of the risk assessment plan with the help of a table. A workplace example has been taken for risk assessment.

Application of Risk Assessment:

The risk assessment is done in a workshop in which many carpenters work and manufacture furniture for their clients. Their nature of work is very dangerous as it involves usage of adhesives, conductors and other equipments, which exposes them to a risk of danger. Thus, a risk assessment is conducted keeping in mind all the six stages of assessment.

Task or scenario	Hazard/s	Associated harm, e.g. what could go wrong?	Existing Risk Controls	Current risk rating Usethe Risk Matrix	Any additional controls are required?[1]	Residual risk rating Usethe Risk Matrix
While working with machines used for joining the parts of furniture	Machinery such as planning machine, saw and sanding machines	The workers are at a risk of eye injury and they may also break their limbs	The machines should be properly guarded and special training should be provided to the carpenters so that no injuries take place while working with the machine	High	The machines should be used only by carpenters who are properly trained	Moderate
For welding any part of furniture	Hazards associated with use of conductors that are electrical in nature	The operators within the workplace may not be able to use it properly	Examination should take place of the conductors to make sure that nothing is wrong with the electrical conductors	high	On a weekly basis, inspection should held	low
While painting or sticking furniture or parts of furniture together	Use of varnishes, paints and adhesives	All the person involved in the work in the same room are exposed to risks such as lungs problems	To make sure that chemical free varnishes, paints and adhesives are used	moderate	Less carcinogenic varnishes, paints and adhesives are used	low
For welding any part of furniture	Noise	People within the same room are exposed to the danger of ear problems	Use of ear plugs	high	The decibels should be reduced to an acceptable level	moderate
While carrying furniture or parts of furniture from one place to another place	The carpenters carry parts of furniture from one place to another place, which varies in size and weights.	It can cause long-term bone or muscle damage.	Proper training should be given and manual handling examination should be done. Manual training should be given to them and they should be aware of any help that they may be needed in case of emergency.	Very high	Trolleys can be used and other machines can be used to take the heavy objects from one place to another place. moreover, carpenters should wear proper gloves and gear to prevent themselves from any injury	Moderate
To clean furniture before delivering it to the clients	Cleaning of wood from furniture	It can cause damage to eyes and nose	To use gloves and gears to make sure that dust does not enter	Moderate	Safety gears are worn before beginning the work of transportation	Low

Concepts that Underpin Work Health and Safety Assessment in Australia:

As per Occupational Health Safety (OHS) every workplace should form policies and procedure for safety at work and maintenance of proper safe systems should be conducted as part of the management system. The OSH act covers all types of employees who are working in Australia and exclude those who work in Commonwealth Government. Moreover, it also excludes employees who work in a petroleum or mining site. The Act has regulations and rules that is approved by the Government to ensure safety at workplace. Safety at workplace is the main objective in Australia. Consistent with nationalities priorities and targets are set and it aims to reduce workplace injuries and accidents.

The act ensures decrease in the rate of workplace accidents by reducing the risk of severity, improving the capability of business so that the workers are able to manage health and safety at workplace. Moreover, it also ensures that occupational diseases are managed in an effective manner and that there is proper resources available from the government’s end in case of any accidents or fatalities. However, accidents do take place within workplace despite organisations take proper care and ensure safety all the time. In such a scenario, the Workers’ compensation and injury management act, 1981 has been established. The act governs compensation rules to be given to workers who are injured. The act lays provision for proper compensation to workers who suffer from any injury that is work related or dependents of the workers who suffer death because of the injury (Curcuruto, Parker & Griffin, 2019).

The act also provides management of workers who are ill or injured so that they can easily return to their work. Likewise, the act also provides for proper training programs that is given to the injured workers. Promotion of safety measures so that there is reduction in the rate of accidents and resolution of disputes that is related to compensation of workers are also some of the primary motto of forming this Act. As per the Injury Management Act, 2005 the act lays provision for establishment of certain agencies for the implementation of the previously mentioned act.

The Insurance Commission of Western Australia Act, 1986 is formed to manage and supervise the risk management and insurance arrangement in behalf of the public agencies and to provide services and other facilities to public authorities to provide protection in case of faulty claims of insurance against them. The purpose of this act is to help the government to reduce the cost of the risk by forming integrated risk management insurance services (Jinnett et al., 2017).

Risk for Vulnerable Populations, and Provide Recommendations to Resolve the Work Safety Risks Identified.

When workers are aware of the safety risks and health practices, they can address the health concerns effectively and follow the practices in an effective manner. In the year 2009 and 2010, the safe work Australia took up a research work with proper focus on four important construction business namely carpenters plumbers, electricians and painters. The vulnerable group of people have the most likelihood of being affected by a hazardous condition at workplace. The vulnerable sections within the workplace include women, minors and workers who are above the age of 50 years. They are prone to catching an infection or other disease or accidents while at workplace. Thus, it is the responsibility of employers to ensure that they properly explain the workplace safety rules to them while employing them.

It is the responsibility of the employers to make sure that vulnerable groups are not exposed to unsafe work environment and that they are not part of any system or work that may be hazardous in nature (Vincent et al., 2018). Moreover, it is also their responsibility to make sure that the provide information, induction and training supervision to workers so that they can perform their work with safety measures. The employees should be, on a monthly basis, consult and cooperate with health and safety representatives so that they can obtain knowledge of safely conducting their work within the workplace.

The employers should also make sure that the work environment is such that no matter in whichever the workers are working the environment for them is safe irrespective of the terms of their employment. The persons employing them should make sure that they free from any kind of physical or psychological harms such as high levels of noise, slippery floors, electrical equipment risk and bullying from other employees (Teo et al., 2016).

Recommendation:

Based on the discussion above, it can held that safety at workplace is two way concern. Both the employers and the employees should be careful of the safety. The employers being on the responsible end should make sure that workers are given proper training and supervision is maintained. Moreover, employers should also make sure that they keep discussing about health risks while they are at workplace. The employers should be aware of the needs and capabilities of the workers and special rules should be formed in case of young workers and migrant visa workers.

References:

Beattie, J., Griffiths, D., Innes, K., & Morphet, J. (2019). Workplace violence perpetrated by clients of health care: A need for safety and trauma‐informed care. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(1-2), 116-124.

Curcuruto, M., Parker, S. K., & Griffin, M. A. (2019). Proactivity towards workplace safety improvement: an investigation of its motivational drivers and organizational outcomes. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 28(2), 221-238.

Jinnett, K., Schwatka, N., Tenney, L., Brockbank, C. V. S., & Newman, L. S. (2017). Chronic conditions, workplace safety, and job demands contribute to absenteeism and job performance. Health Affairs, 36(2), 237-244.

Teo, A. L. E., Ofori, G., Tjandra, I. K., & Kim, H. (2016). Design for safety: theoretical framework of the safety aspect of BIM system to determine the safety index. Construction Economics and Building, 16(4), 1.

Vincent, G. E., Kinchin, I., Ferguson, S. A., & Jay, S. M. (2018). The cost of inadequate sleep among on-call workers in Australia: a workplace perspective. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(3), 398.

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