The OHS Legal Compliance in Local Restaurant - Case Study Example

OHS: LOCAL RESTURANT STUDENT NAME PROFESOR’S NAME COURSE TITLE DATE Executive summary All workplaces in Australia must abide by the work health and safety (WHS) regulations as well as the occupier’s health and safety (OHS)regulations. Duty bearers must provide safe premises, safe, materials, a safe working system to ensure that the workplace is suitable for not only the employees but also other users of the workplace. The legislation in Australia requires that a safe workplace must be provided; adequate training and workplace hazards must be controlled. The non-adherence to WHS and OHS standards imposes both criminal and civil action, while a breach opens the duty bearers to sanctions and imposition of responsibilities. This report analyses the compliance of a local restaurant to the OHS and WHS standards. It analyses the way in whichrestaurant manages its risks, who bears the duty of care, the procedures for dealing with health and safety hazards and what happens when there is a lapse in the OHS and WHS standards required by occupiers. The paper gives recommendations on the way forward in regards to adhering to OHS and WHS standards. Introduction The restaurant is situated in a small town, having fourteen (14) employees, two (2) supervisors and a manager who is the owner of the restaurant. The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) primarily applies to persons who are conducting a business whose primary role is to manage risks and ensure the health and safety of the works through elimination of risks as much as is reasonably practicable. On the other hand the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Cth) (OHS Act) applies to those in control of a workplace to ensure that there is a minimisation of risks within the workplace environment.The restaurant manager is tasked with the responsibility of managing risks within the workplace. The legal requirements that relates to workplace safety and occupational health and safety (OHS) can be classified as legislation, regulations and legal precedents that enumerates the requirements to adhere to OHS standards. The reasonable precautions that are relevant in minimising the risks within the environment include the identification of hazards, the assessment of risks that may result in hazards, the control measures that are appropriate in minimising the level of risks, implementation of control measures and monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of the control measures (Luntz&Hambly, 1995). Management of Risks or Hazards and Procedures Section 17of the WHS Act imposes a duty on a person to ensure compliance with health and safety that is by elimination of risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable and where this is not possible then minimise the risks as far as is reasonably practicable. The obligation bearers of this duty are the managers who are tasked with the obligation of ensuring and improving OHS within the workplace (Wright, 1997). This duty would lie squarely on the restaurants manager because the manager is in charge of the day to day running of the workplace. Health hazards and risks in the workplace can be classified as biological, physical, chemical, ergonomic and psychosocial (Barret& Howells, 1995). The manager has the responsibility of developing, maintaining and implementing OHS requirements within the restaurant.The OHS Act and the WHS Act requires that the restaurant have an effective way of managing risks and hazards. The effective method ensuring that the restaurant can identify the hazards that create a risk to the workers and resolve them before they cause injury or illness. For instance in an interview with two of the employees at the restaurant, on the question regarding the reporting procedure of hazards and risks, they stated that when there is a risk or hazard, they report the risks to the supervisor and the supervisor reports it to the manager who acts on the risk. Therefore the restaurant complies with the WHS Act because there is a clear outline of how a workplace hazard or risk has to be reported and acted on. What about immediate and imminent risk? This includes fires, water spills and gas leaks. The employees interviewed stated that where there are imminent risks such as fires and water spills, the employees act on this immediately through the use of fire extinguishers and removing the leaking gas cylinders to an open space outside the restaurant and closing the valve. This implies that at the workplace, the employees have a duty to also manage risks that are a threat to their life or minimise the risk as much as possible. Dealing with imminent risks is a way of safeguarding the health of the worker and this means giving the worker an opportunity to deal with imminent risks (Gunningham&Johnstone, 1999). Duty of Care The legal requirement imposed on employers is that they have the responsibility of managing the workplace. This duty relates to the health and safety of the employers and to an extent user of the workplace premises such as customers. The OHS Act expresses the requirement of adhering to the duty of care standards. The manager of the restaurant therefore has the duty of care to ensure the health, welfare and safety at work of all its employees and other people in the workplace. In regards to the duty of care the OHS Act and the WHS Act imposes a duty on employers to take all practicable measures to control risks against injuries in the workplace. The employees on the other hand have a similar duty or obligation to co-operate with their employees in regards to health and matters of safety. The OHS Act clearly states a failure to comply with the OHS Act is considered an offence (Johnstone, 1997). On interviewing the manager in regards to executing his duty of care towards the employees, he stated that he had taken sufficient steps to ensure that his employees are affectively protected from hazards. Due to the fact that the nature of the work is dealing with food, fire and other customers, the manager had strategically installed first aid kits in the kitchen, in the staff changing rooms, and in the area of where guests and client dine. Further in case of injuries that would require medical attention, he had installed two phones in the kitchen area and a mobile phone at the counter for use by the employees to call for emergency assistance. Apart from this, the employees are given a uniform which includes aprons, shoes and appropriate attire suitable for working within the kitchen environment. The kitchen has different disposal bins for the waste products that are no longer needed. The knives, forks and other utensils are placed on a drawer while some knives hang appropriately on the wall to minimise risk of injury within the workplace. The manager says that they have a storage room for flammable materials such as oil and gas, that can cause fires and therefore, the risk of harm to employees had been minimised greatly. On the question regarding cleaningprocedures and responding to spills that may cause falls, the manager responded by stating that the cleaning staff have been instructed to ensure that at all times while cleaning, they must display a sign that warns other employees that there is a wet floor. Most of the times, the cleaning staff do their work at night or very early in the morning before the other employees get to work and thereby minimising the risk of harm to the workers at the workplace. Training Training is an important aspect of dealing with OHS and workplace safety. The OHS Act and the WHS Act creates an obligation to those bearing the duty of care to make available to the employer adequate information regarding the employment requirements, conditions of employment and the requirements of the job to the employee (Luntz&Hambly, 1995). Adequate training of the employee helps in the elimination or minimisation of risks or controlling the risks and hazards that might occur within the workplace environment. Training is part and parcel of the policy of the restaurant and that all the employees must attend upon their employment to training that takes about two days to learn about the workplace and what is expected of them. In an interview with two of the employees at the restaurant, they stated that when they were first employed by the manager, they took two days of training and induction training on the first day on how the restaurant works. Moreover, the requirements for getting employed at the restaurant are that a person must have worked at a restaurant in their former job or has had relevant training in the business. This in their opinion is ensuring that only those with the necessary knowledge of working on a restaurant work within that environment because they are aware of the risks. During the training, the employees are given different tasks and answer a questionnaire that requires them to give actions that would be taken into account in different scenarios within the workplace. The contract of employment further stipulates that they must at all times adhere to the standards of the restaurant regarding workers health and safety rules. Further, the supervisors of the restaurant are mandated to brief the employees every day before the day’s work begins about the expectations of the day and how to handle different issues and problems that may arise while carrying out their duties. A weekly staff meeting is organised attended by the manger, the supervisors and all the employees in order to brief the staff on issues regarding health risks and hazards as well as allows the employees to report any lapse or risks that may arise at the workplace. Conclusion In conclusion, OHS and WHS regulations and standards are an important aspect of ensuring that occupiers and duty holders within the workplace provide an enabling environment for their employees and workers to work in an enabling environment free from risks. Though the WHS Act and the OHS Act do not contemplate an environment that is free of harm, it requires the duty holder to minimise the risks are far as is reasonably practicable to ensure that the workers are safe and work in a safe environment. The restaurant under study has sought to ensure compliance with the OHS standards of safety within the work environment through ensuring that the workers adhere to the health and safety standards, they train the workers upon employment and through induction of what the restaurant expects of them and the duty holder takes responsibility of ensuring that the workplace is safe for the workers. Recommendations The restaurant adheres to the OHS and WHS standards; however there some issues that needs to be addressed: I. The workplace policy on safety standards needs to be amended in such a way that it captures the duty imposed on the duty bearer when it comes to employers who do not have adequate experience. For instance new employees who have been trained but have not worked in the workplace environment are only trained for two days. There needs to be continuous training of the new workers to ensure that their safety is protected while at the workplace. II. Other than dealing with gas leaks through placing it in an open environment, the restaurant’s manager must ensure that notice is given to the employees regarding the gas leak and ensuring that there are no naked flames. Secondly, the manager gives a clear guideline that in the event of a leak, then the restaurant must be evacuated and the electricity and gas supplies within the restaurant are cut off to minimise the risks of fires. III. The employees need to be made aware of the hazards that exist within the work environment. The reporting procedure should be the identification of the hazard, clearing the hazard area, partitioning the area of the hazard in order to protect people from possible harm and if it cannot be cleared easily then the hazard must be reported to the supervisors. After handling the hazard, then the relevant procedure needs to be created to identify and deal with future hazards and any further incidents. References Barrett, B & Howells, R (1995).Cases & Materials on Occupational Health and Safety law. London: Cavendish Publishers. Gunningham, N.&Johnstone, R. (1999) Regulating Workplace Safety: Systems and Sanctions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Johnstone, R. (1997). Occupational Health and Safety Law and Policy: Text and Materials. Sydney: LBC Information Services. Luntz, H. &Hambly, D. (1995).Torts: Cases and Commentary. 4th Ed.Sydney: Butterworths. Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 Work Health and Safety Act 2011 Wright, E.B. (1997). Law of Health and Safety at Work. London: Sweet & Maxwell. Read More