Introduction To OHS in Victoria
The Overseeing Bodies.
Safe Work Australia
"Safe Work Australia leads the development of national policy to improve work health and safety and workers’ compensation arrangements across Australia"http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA
Worksafe Victoria
The Regulator for Occupational Health and Safety in Victoria is Worksafe Victoria.Worksafe Victoria's Vision is "Victorian workers returning home safe every day."
Their mission:
Working with the community to deliver outstanding workplace safety, together with quality care and insurance protection to workers and employers.
Their values:
The work we do is important because we impact upon many people’s lives, everyday. We have a responsibility to ensure that strong values guide us in everything we do.
WorkSafe Victoria is:
- Constructive in the way we provide information, advice and service
- Accountable for what we do and what we say. We live up to our promises
- Transparent in the way we work, our environment is open and honest
- Effective by working collaboratively to deliver high quality services
- Caring by showing empathy in our dealings with everyone we work with
- help avoid workplace injuries occurring
- enforce Victoria's occupational health and safety laws
- provide reasonably priced workplace injury insurance for employers
- help injured workers back into the workforce, and
- manage the workers' compensation scheme by ensuring the prompt delivery of appropriate services and adopting prudent financial practices.
The Legal Stuff
In Victoria, workplace health and safety is governed by a system of laws, regulations and compliance codes which set out the responsibilities of employers and workers to ensure that safety is maintained at work.This information is freely available on the Worksafe website.
The Act
The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (the Act) is the cornerstone of legislative and administrative measures to improve occupational health and safety in Victoria.The Act sets out the key principles, duties and rights in relation to occupational health and safety. The general nature of the duties imposed by the Act means that they cover a very wide variety of circumstances, do not readily date and provide considerable flexibility for a duty holder to determine what needs to be done to comply.
The Regulations
The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007 are made under the Act. They specify the ways duties imposed by the Act must be performed, or prescribe procedural or administrative matters to support the Act, such as requiring licenses for specific activities, keeping records, or notifying certain matters.Guidance
Effective OHS regulation requires that WorkSafe provides clear, accessible advice and guidance about what constitutes compliance with the Act and Regulations. This can be achieved through Compliance Codes, WorkSafe Positions and non-statutory guidance (“the OHS compliance framework”).Compliance Codes
Compliance codes provide practical guidance to those who have duties or obligations under the OHS Act. They aim to provide easy to understand information on how to comply.N.B. This information, if applied appropriately, will mean those who follow it are deemed to have complied with their obligations under the OHS Act.
The eight compliance codes now available are:
- Communicating occupational health and safety across languages*
- Workplace amenities and work environment*
- Confined spaces*
- First aid in the workplace*
- Prevention of falls in general construction*
- Foundries*
- Managing asbestos in workplaces
- Removing asbestos in workplaces
Which of these might be relevant to your workplace?
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