Occupational health and safety laws in Sydney, NSW - Case Study Example

?Occupational health and safety laws in Sydney, NSW Occupational health and safety, in simple terms, means protecting the health and welfare of employees, who work for an organization. It is the matter of providing the un-hazardous and risk-free working environment. The positive result of occupational health and safety will help co-workers, family members, suppliers, buyers and people who reside near by working environment. Not only manufacturing companies but also special events and functions need to follow the procedures of Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2000, Sydney, NSW. This paper would explain the risk factors involved in organizing a Corporate Product Launch (Alcoholic Product) in a conference room at Luna Park, Sydney, where nearly 400 guests are expected to attend on a Friday evening. The paper clearly describes risk identification, rick analysis of the event and also treatment for the same. With in the OHS process, one can also find the relevant occupational and safety laws that an event organizer needs to follow at the time of organizing an event in Sydney, NSW. As mentioned above, we are taking a case study to explain the risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation and treatment. Event Details Event Type: A corporate product launch (Alcoholic Product) event, at Luna Park, Sydney. Guests: Presence of nearly 400 guests Theme: Fire & Ice Event Style: Cocktail Party It is the responsibility of the event organizers to look after the safety of the participants in any event. Before organizing an event, the organizers should asses the possible risk factors and take the precautions to manage the risk. Risk, to define in simple terms, means possible problems. Most of the event organizers spend their time in finding the possible problems while organizing an event and try to solve those problems. Thanks to ISO 31000 standard, which made event organizers to follow the risk management process to mitigate the risk. As it is a corporate product launch event, the event organizer should expect VIP guests like top management people of various companies, celebrities, politicians and company’s staff. When a politician is attending an event, there is a possible threat of attacks (depends on the politician’s profile). So, the even organizers keep several things on risk register while analyzing the risk to obey the Occupational Health and Safety Legislation. As most the guests who are attending this event hold VIP status, it is very important for Luna Park officials and Event Organizer to look after the safety and welfare of the guests. Literature Review: Workplace safety should always be given a high priority. It does not matter if you are running an organization or conducting an event, you, as an organizer or a manager, should look at various things that directly or indirectly affect workplace safety. Be it a severe accident or negligible accident, it affects people health and organization’s reputation. The occupational health and safety act clearly demands event organizers should maintain a risk register and site induction to ensure all the responsibilities are properly delegated to each and every individual. Site Induction paper will help event organizer in assigning the tasks. The site induction paper needs to be discussed among the group of people who look after various tasks when an event is going on. Site Induction paper will have the details of site management team and event details. Site Induction paper also describes the procedure requirements including accident reporting, first aid facilities, fire precautions, smoking zone, evacuation, housekeeping, storage facilities, protocol (If politicians visit the event, common arrangements and other miscellaneous details. So, without site induction paper, it would be very difficult to organize an event. Risk is always there in organizing every event but taking the right care and following proper procedures help mitigating the risk. Risk Identification There are several types of risks involved when organizing an event. Majorly, the risks are classified into 3 types. 1. Man-made Risks 2. Natural Risks 3. Political Risks It is mandatory to asses these three risks while planning to host an event. Man-made risks include lack of adequate crowd control, Inadequate VIP protection, No fire fighting facilities, poor planning, food poisoning, professional negligence and labor disputes. Natural Risks include Natural disasters like earth quakes, floods and bad whether preventing open air events. Political Risks include Terrorism threats, protocol ignorance and any other acts of violence. As the case study is about a corporate Product launch, the above mentioned three risks are impending. Let us just have look at the possible risk occurrences in the Corporate Product Launch Event. Improper installation of Rigger – At Luna Park, there is a possibility of the rigger fall as rigging was taken place at two places, Ball Room and Ted Hopkins. Fire at the conference centre – As it is a cocktail party; there is a possibility of fire accidents in the conference hall. The severity of the accident would be very high. Tripping over Loose Cables- This again leads to fire accidents and the severity of the accident would be very high walling stand Falling - One can definitely see various hoardings and walling stands in the conference room as it is a product launching party. The exhibiters would love to visible their product to the audience. Walling stand falling over can also do a reasonable damage. Food Poisoning – Food Poisoning is always considered as a risk factor in almost all the events. These are considered to be some of the risk factors we can identify at the Corporate Product Launch event. The event organizer needs to well aware of all these risk factors well in advance and try to prevent them Risk Analysis Analyzing the risk is most crucial factor because unless it is analyzed, it can not be cured. Once the event organizer is done with risk identification, it is the time for risk analysis (O’Toole, 2008) or assessment. There are several steps in risk assessment. Impact: Knowing who will be impacted with the risk; audience, hotel management, event organizer or the company, which is launching the product. Severity: How sever the risk is? Is there any possibility of death or it just creates a disharmony? Quantify the Risk: Quantify the Risk Rate as low, medium and high Record: Maintain the record of all risk identifying areas and assessment details so that it will be easier to address them. There are 3 important things an event organizer needs to consider while organizing an event. They are the type of risk, the severity of risk and the likelihood of the risk. Once this analysis is done and recorded, it is easier to take the action. For instance, let us take a risk factor, which we identified under risk identifier section. Rigger Falling is considered to be a risk factor in majority of the events. The severity of the accident that happens when a rigger falls will be possibly a single death. If you compare this with major accidents like fire accidents and natural disasters, the severity of the risk is low. The likelihood of the accident takes place is also low. So, the risk can be treated by taking the precautions. If you reassess the risk after you took all safety precautions, the likelihood of the risk should be zero. Risk Management Organizers should try to avoid the risk or transfer the risk where ever possible. Yes, most of the moderate severe risks can be avoided or transferred to Security Company. Incase, if an organizer can not avoid the risk, it is mandatory to take the insurance against the risk. If you look at the Occupational and Safety Law Act, 2000, you can clearly understand when an insurance coverage can be accommodated. But, it all depends on the severity of the situation, one can claim the insurance. Duty of Care According to Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2000, duty of care covers all work places and events in Sydney, NSW. Under this OHS act, all employees should oblige duty of care to everybody at the work place, irrespective of the employees or non-employees of the organization. Duty of Care is something every employee should obey. Duty of Care, in simple terms, means protecting the health and safety of every individual at the work place or an event. National Occupational Health and Safety Commission emphasizes on ‘Reasonably Practical’, which means a duty worker should do anything only after taking the safety precautions (NOHSC, Australia). Several factors should be considered to know if the risk is reasonably practical. They are Severity of Risk or Hazard, Nature of risk, availability of solutions and knowledge on those available solutions. As per Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2000, every event organizer should aware about Common Standards of Practice, which is a manual which describes what an event organizer should do to prevent the possible risks. In a nutshell, event organizers should check the equipments that are being installed in the conference room or Ball Room or anywhere for that matter. Safe Property, Safe Systems of Work and Safe people are considered to be three important things required to run an event successfully. Apart from the responsibilities of Event Organizer, each and every employee who works under organizer should assume some responsibilities. Each and every worker should co-operate the event organizer to obey the rules and regulations imposed by Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2000, Sydney, NSW. No worker should carelessly act on specific things that harm welfare of the audience under OHS, NSW. Emergency Procedures This paper analyzes a couple of most common emergency procedures that likely to happen in events. Bushfire Emergency Procedures: This also includes the evacuation procedures. Most of the events are prone to bushfire especially if there are cocktail parties going on. Most of the times, people can listen an alarm bells, which are kept to let people know about the severity of the situation. The workplace people need to ensure if it is a genuine alarm and the reason behind the alarm. Sometimes alarm bell rings because of high temperature and smoke. Better to immediately call Fire Service and follow their instructions at the time of evacuation. People inside the conference room should close the windows and doors but ensure the doors and gates are not locked so that the Fire Services people can enter into the conference room or bushfire area. The site induction paper will help event organizer at this juncture. As the responsibility of the evacuation is already assigned to a team of individuals, who have knowledge on available solutions, they will look after the entire procedure. According to the Occupational Health and Safety Legislation, the event should be insured with appropriate authority. Without the insurance coverage, no entertainment event or product launch event will be taken place in Sydney, NSW. It is mandatory for the event organizer should know about the nitty-gritty of what can be accommodated and what not under the insurance coverage. About the Venue and Risk Analysis at Venue Luna Park, Sydney has got its own safety systems to ensure an amazing working environment for audience, employees, clients and contractors. Luna Park Management provides the necessary skilled resource that is enabled with the required knowledge on safety laws. All the resources at Luna Park are well trained and well equipped to proactively work on various risk factors to minimize the health hazards. Luna Park Management insists that each organizer, guest and employee must oblige to protect their safety and other people at the work place. All contractors need to share the information about the possible risk factors with the management of Luna Park to avoid unnecessary mishaps in between the event. The Occupational Health and Safety Policy is an integral part of the Risk Management procedure at Luna Park. Luna Park has got its own Occupational Health and Safety committee which looks after the risk management issues at the time of special events happening inside the park. The OH&S committee, event organizer and venue manager would work together to analyze the risk factors and solve them at least a couple of hours prior to the time of event. Before commencing the work at the site, the organizer, employees and OH&S team will go through the site induction paper and sign the same. The Safety Officers at Luna Park, Sydney, NSW, will involve in identifying, assessing and managing the risk factors involved. All the observations will be documented in Work Method Statement, which contains the details like risk procedures, scope of work for the identified potential risks. This document will help in minimizing the risks and transferring the risks to other parties who can handle them. Conclusion According to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2000, every event organizer should oblige to conduct a risk management process at the site where the event is going to take place. Developing a site induction report and get it signed by venue manager, event organizer and other people who are involved in the process. The site induction paper helps to assign responsibilities to concerned people and mitigate the risk. The site induction paper should be read by each and every personnel who are involved in the process. The site induction paper also describes who should be contacted at the time of various emergency levels. The risk is broadly categorized into three types and each type of risk may cause damage to audience who attend the event. So, it is necessary to understand the severity of the hazards and likelihood of the hazard. Most of the event organizers or venue managers will have a chart to identify highly hazardous places or activities. This also should be included in the site induction document. Luna Park has its own risk management policies in place. The only thing needed is the co-ordination between the event organizer and venue manager who works from hotel side. OH &S demands event organizers to identify the hazards and address them well in advance to the event. The evacuation procedure at the time of emergency should be perfectly documented so that the people who are engaged in evacuation activities know their responsibilities. By taking the help of Work Method Statement, it is very much possible for event organizer or venue manager to mitigate the risk at Luna Park. Thanks to the Occupational Health and Safety Act that demands event organizers to take the precautions to prevent the damages. References Australian Industry Group, 2004, Submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into National Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Health and Safety Frameworks. Retrieved January 2004 from the Productivity Commission website at: http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/workerscomp/subs/sublist.html Australian Government, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, 2003, Submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into National Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Health and Safety Frameworks, September. Retrieved January 2004 from the Productivity Commission website at: http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/workerscomp/subs/sublist.html Australian Government, Regulatory Impact Statement on the Occupational Health and Safety (Commonwealth Employment) Amendment (Employee Involvement and Compliance) Bill 2002, retrieved from Parliament of Australia information website February 2004: http://www.parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/Repository/Legis/ems/Linked/2606020 3.pdf Bottomley, B., 1999, Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems: Strategic Issues Report, Sydney, National Occupational Health and Safety Commission, Sydney Brooks, A, 2003, Occupational Health and Safety Law in Australia, 4th ed. (1st ed. 1993), CCH, Sydney. Jamieson, S. & Westcott, M., 2001, “Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000: A Story of Reform in New South Wales”, in Australian Journal of Labour Law, vol. 14, pp. 177­189. Luna Park Occupational Health & Safety Policy, http://www.bigtopsydney.com/images/specs/lists/big_top_venue_guidelines_2011.pdf (Page 7-13) Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001 (NSW), regulation 344. O’Toole, W., 2008. Event project management systems: Risk Management Section. WorkCover Authority of New South Wales, http://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au (Health and Safety Read More