How Will You Be Affected By The New Workplace Safety Laws? Post 2

To get you prepared for the new legislation, here are some definitions that relate directly to the responsibilities that people have in the workplace for maintaining a safe and healthy environment.

The term Employer has been broken into two descriptions in order to give greater coverage of those responsible for safety. The two new terms are:

·         Officers; and

·         Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU).

Officers are those considered under the Corporations Act to be in a position to:

·         Have a significant effect on the organisations financial standing;

·         Make, or participate in making, decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the business of the organisation;

·         Issue instructions or wishes that directors of the corporation are accustomed to act upon; and/or

·         Act as a Director or Secretary of the organisation.

A Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking is classified as a such people with the responsibility for/of/as:

·         A businesses (incorporated or unincorporated);

·         A Partnership; or

·         A sole trader

·         Managing or controlling the workplace;

·         Managing or controlling fixtures fittings or plant at the workplace;

·         Managing, controlling, installing, constructing and/or commissioning plant or structures;

·         Designers;

·         Manufacturers;

·         Suppliers;

·         Importers;

·         Volunteer associations where worker(s) are employed.

Volunteer organisations that do not employ a worker or workers are not classified as a PCBU. An example of this would be a netball club where everyone volunteers their time and effort to run the activities of the club.
Alternatively, a swim club that employs a coach would be covered.
The term Employee has now been reclassified as Workers.

Workers include:

·         Employees;

·         Contractors;

·         Sub-contractors;

·         Those on work experience;

·         Labour hire employees/ contactors,

·         Trainees; and  

·         Volunteers.

This definition now covers those who are paid or unpaid in the delivery of work or a service. This definition could greatly affect many organisations out there that didn’t provide safety training for their volunteers or work experience students.
It has been stated that this may mean that such things as White Cards (construction site safety compliance induction cards) may be a necessary requirement for some volunteer and student workers on construction sites and workplace inductions for all.
Another definition is Others. This covers visitors, customers, patients, students etc. on a site.

Some states already have Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) and you may be familiar with their role. For other states this is a new concept and for the ACT it’s simply a change of name.
The role of the HSR is to act as a consultative interface between the workers in a workplace or section of the workplace and the PCBUs. Their role is to primarily recognise, report and recommend compliance actions and review the application of any reasonable and practical actions taken by the PCBU to reduce or eliminate any hazards in the workplace.

There are requirements for the appointment of an HSR that every PCBU and Officer of an organisation should make themselves aware of.

And finally, for today at least, there are Workplace Safety Committees, whose responsibility is to review, recommend and act upon safety issues in the workplace. Again there are criteria that must be met for the instigation of a Workplace Safety Committee.
Good health and keep safe out there.

Colin

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