Aspects of Occupational Health and Safety Regulations Risk Management at Kimberly Diamond Company - Case Study Example

MONITOR A SAFE WORK PLACE. Name Task Date Table of contents Occupational Health and Safety regulations………………………………… 2 Introduction……………………………………………………………………. 2 OHS Training Plan……………………………………………………………. 6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………… 8 References……………………………………………………………………… 9 Occupational Health and Safety regulations Introduction In every organization in Australia, occupational health and safety (OHS) of workers is a requirement by the law. Workers must be protected from risks and hazards at their place of work. Western Australia has laid down an OHS act and regulation that govern various organization and work places (Chew, 2008). These regulations are implemented at the work place to secure the safety of employees. The focus of this report is to discuss the OHS act and regulations of Western Australia. The report also details various aspects of OHS risk management at Kimberly Diamond Company. Finally it has an occupational Health and Safety plan bearing all the required details. The current OHS act and regulations for Western Australia is called the Occupational Health and Safety Act (1984) or the OSH Act. Regulation 3.1 of section 3 deals with the identification of hazards, assessing and managing risks at the place of work. An organization should organize for risk management training by implementing a risk management system. The approach recommended for risk management includes a method of four steps. The method has identification, assessment, controlling and reviewing all hazards at the place of work. In risk identification the problem is found, checked out through assessment and fixed in the control step. Finally feedback is given after review and monitoring (Clarke, Cooper, 2004). At Kimberly Diamond Company the programs developed to for risk management can only be useful if they are aligned with the requirements of the code of practice for work place risk management in Western Australia. The company risk management programs should therefore guide employees on the way they can identify risks and hazards at the work place. They should be trained and guided on how to assess risks. Training should equip them on how to understand the nature of harm that can result from various risks. Employees should be trained and advised to put into practice the most effective measures of risk control depending on prevailing circumstances. The company should regularly review risk control measures to ensure that they as are effective as planned. The whole process of risk management should include consultations with employees at every practicable stage. Workers bring on board new experience, ideas and knowledge that would otherwise be missing (Tooma, 2008). The policies and procedures of Kimberly Diamond Company require that the health and safety risks at work are reduced as much as possible. The company has established risk levels and the policies require that the process of risk management be continuous all through. The procedures are in line with the policies outlined in the OHS 1984 of Western Australia (Kloss, 2010). The policies and procedures show that potential hazards should be identified, levels of risk be assessed, controls be developed to cut down the risk. The controls must be monitored for effectiveness and the levels of residual risk be assessed. The company and its workers in adherence to the company policies and procedures practice duty of care. Based on these policies the company should provide the employees with a work environment with to hazards. It must also provide them with instruction, information, supervision and training. Employees should also take care of their health and safety (Simpson, Horberry, Joy, 2009). The identification and reporting of hazards is done any time as long as there is a threat of occurrence of a risk. Reporting is done through the use of an online form but the review of the hazards happens only once per month. Reporting is also done whenever there is need. This is when a hazard has been identified and a possible risk is in the offing. Risk and safety audits are done periodically and on a regular basis. First aid treatment evacuation is done whenever there is an accident. When a dangerous or risky situation has been identified, evacuations can also be done. An information database is maintained at the company to keep records about the various processes of risk management done at different times of the year. Various types of records are kept as well for purposes of future reference. These include different types of registers such as accident register, near miss register among others (Wilson, McCutcheon, Buchanan, 2004). Provision of the right kind of information concerning occupational Health and Safety to employees helps them to know what the OHS management system requires of them. They can then be able to adhere to the system since they understand its requirements. Communication is done through newsletters, notice boards, staff meetings and emails among other methods. All employees should take part in discussions whenever there are upcoming changes in occupational health and safety issues that could have a bearing on their safety and health at the place of work. Management must acknowledge employee views and tell them if any changes have occurred at the place of work as a result of the issues raised in the consultation process. Employees are involved in the day to day work in the company and therefore have important information on the way the work is done. They could have solutions to OHS problems that my make the process of OHS better. Good communication increases the morale of staff and its productivity. It also results in better management decision on issues of occupational health and safety, causes the work place to remain safe, maintain the environment healthy for every employee and it also causes a reduction in the amounts of incidences, costs and severity of direct and indirect injuries and diseases at the place of work (Cameron, Raman, 2005). Consultative procedures in Kimberly Diamond Company involve a continuous process with four steps. First the employees together with the management think about the types of risks and hazards that may be causing a risk to the health of people around the company. Next they take the step of talking about the hazards and the methods of control that can be used to eliminate them, reducing them or applying other methods of control. After talking over the issues they embark on doing. Here they follow the hierarchy of controls to implement the control measures for risk elimination. The final step is the review process which involves the reviewing of the risk controls to determine their suitability to control the risks resulting from the hazards. The occupational health and safety issues raised in consultation meetings must be tackled in the consultation process. The company’s top management goes into a meeting to discuss these issues and to deliberate on the most appropriate actions to take. The views given by employees are considered in any action that the company takes (Wilson et al., 2004). The company tries its level best to respond to all the questions and concerns the employees raise. The company then gives feedback and appropriate answers to the questions raised by employees. The management of the company communicates any course of action taken in good time. The reasons for such an action are also communicated to employees. Recording is done by specific people tasked with the role of assessing identified risks. Various registers are used for keeping these records before action can be taken. Reporting is done after the records have been made. Communication about the risks and hazards is done through various ways as well. Groups can receive information through emails, notice boards, staff meetings and newsletters. Informal ways of communication such as word of mouth applies when employees are able to pass information to each other (Fingret, 1995). The hierarchy of controls involves risk elimination, substitution or elimination, isolation, engineering controls, administrative controls and personal protective equipment. The risk control measures at KDC are never sufficient to eliminate all risks. Workers are forced to use other methods of control because many risks have not been eliminated. Some risks cannot be eliminated because the company’s operations such as mining of diamond involve these risks. Doing away of the risks means stopping certain operations altogether. Monitoring of outcomes must consider a number of factors for it to elicit good response from the organization. In order to monitor outcomes the organization checks how best the control measures employed in the system can reduce the risks identified or eliminate them completely. It is also wise to assess if the control measures used have the potential to bring about other new hazards that were previously non existent. The organization also needs to check if the control measures applied and the whole process is effective in the identification of hazards and risk management. The OHS records that can be used to identify OHS training needs include the first aid log, accident and near miss report, incident report and the near miss report, injury register, minor injury report, non conformance report, audit tolls, audit benchmarks, risk assessment form and risk assessment checklists among others (Kloss, 2010) Part 2: OHS training plan Who should be trained: All employees recruited in the company should be trained immediately they become part of the company staff. Content of training program: The proposed training program should have items such as the overview of the project, expectations of clients, OHS policy objectives, legislative requirements for OHS, OHS system of management, risk assessment, key indicators of performance, emergency plans, emergencies and incident reporting, OHS audits and safe working practices. Other contents may include policy on drugs and alcohol, communications, camp rules, medical facilities, safety meetings, job safety analysis and environmental awareness. Type of training: Training takes the form of presentations, and face to face meetings. Appropriate trainers: Training should be facilitated by the Occupational Health and Safety officers. Venue, resources required include: Training classrooms, Library for reference materials, Computers, outdoor training area for simulations of work situations, White boards, Overhead projector, Seating to accommodate participants, based on training load, Shop area, Projection screen, Storage room, Television / VCR combination, participant accommodation, Training tool kits with training equipment and other materials like fall protection harnesses and tools (Gunningham, 2007). Records to be kept The records will be kept in a central database. These records will be kept concerning the dates of training, needs and requirements for training, topic of training, progress of trainees, delinquent training and types of training carried out. Measuring training effectiveness The effectiveness of training should be known through thorough evaluation which should ongoing. The process of measuring effectiveness is accomplished through formal assessment of the process of training, evaluation by participants, observations of the behavior of workers in the field and obtaining feedback from major indicators of performance (Bohle, Quinlan, 2000). When feedback has been received through all these methods, the OHS manager analyses it before the key project management team members review it. Recommendations made for improvement by these officers must have the approval of the OHS Manager for the project. It is then implemented by those who are responsible to do it. Occupational Health and Safety trainings are very costly. This is because there are many things needed in terms of facilities for the process to be effective. Money is also required to purchase some of the equipment needed and to pay those invited to facilitate the trainings (Kloss, 2010). Conclusion In conclusion, the report presents a discussion of the OHS and regulations in Western Australia. It also details issues touching on the risk management process at Kimberley Diamond Company. Various requirements on risk management exist in the OHS Act (1984) of Western Australia. Under this Act, employers are supposed to ensure that there are measures for risk control to avoid endangering the lives of their workers. Kimberley Diamond Company is also obligated under the OHS regulations to observe the risk management process. Its policies and procedures ensure that the process of risk management is done in the company in a continuous manner. Finally, the report presents an OHS training plan that involves certain details that must be observed for the process to be effective. References Bohle, P., Quinlan, M. (2000). Managing Occupational Health and Safety: A multi disciplinary Approach. John Wiley and Sons. Cameron, I., Raman, R. (2005). Process Systems Risk Management. Amazon. Chew, D., (2008). Corporate Risk Management. Oxford. Clarke, S. Cooper, S. (2004). Managing the Risk of Workplace Stress: Health and Safety Hazards. MIT. Fingret, A. (1995). Occupational Health: A practical Guide for Managers. MIT Press. Gunningham, N. (2007). Mine Safety: Law, Regulation Policy. Routledge. Kloss, D., (2010). Occupational Health Law. Penguine. Simpson, G., Horberry, T. Joy, J. (2009). Understanding Human Error in Mine Safety. John Wiley. Tooma, M. (2008). Safety, Security, Health and Environment Law. Cengage. Wilson, L. McCutcheon, D., Buchanan, M. (2004). Industrial Safety and Risk Management. Oxford. Read More