The document discusses occupational health and safety. It states that safety is everyone's responsibility in the workplace and is a legal requirement for employers. It outlines employers' duties to provide a safe workplace, training, identify risks, and follow OHS laws. Employees must work safely and protect others. Employers and employees both have responsibilities for OHS. The document also discusses identifying hazards, assessing risks, controlling risks, safety signs, personal protective equipment, emergency procedures, and creating a safe workplace overall.

2. Occupational Health and Safety
 Safety and health in the workplace is everyone’s
responsibility
 OHS is a legal requirement for employers
 Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984, and the
Occupational Safety and Health Regulations, 1996
 Department of Commerce, Worksafe.
www.commerce.wa.gov.au

3. The Australian Framework
Source: www.nohsc.gov.au

4. Duty of Care
Duty of care means you have a legal and moral duty to
anticipate possible causes of injury and illness, and to
do everything reasonably possible to remove or
minimise these potential causes of harm. The duty
holder, in this case the event owner, must minimise or
remove risk to guests and staff where reasonably
practical. This allows the duty-holder to use their own
judgement to work out the best way of controlling
risks. If something does go wrong the duty-holder
must show that reasonable precautions were taken to
avoid it, and that it was not reasonably practical to do
more than what was done.

5. Who is responsible for OHS?
In the workplace, both employers (the boss) and employees (workers) have
responsibilities in regards to OHS.
Employers must:
 Provide a safe and healthy workplace
 Provide enough information, training and supervision to ensure the health and
safety of workers
 Have a process to identify and manage workplace risks
 Observe OHS laws
 Make sure that OHS procedures are developed and followed
As a worker you have certain responsibilities too, employees must:
 Follow safe work practices, instructions and rules and any other guidelines
about working safely
 Work in a way that protects the health and safety of other workers, customers
and guests

6. ThinkSafe Steps
1. Spot the Hazard
2. Assess the Risk
3. Make the changes
Source: Worksafe Smart Move 2002 – General Module, www.docep.wa.gov.au

7. 1. Spot the hazard
A hazard is anything that could hurt
you or someone else.
Each day you will be around may different
hazards. Can you think of some?

8.  One way of identifying hazards is by looking closely at
the area in which you will be working.
 Some risks will be obvious – eg. Broken or missing
steps in a staircase, boxes in a corridor
 Some risks will be more difficult to spot –eg. Frayed
wiring on an electrical cord
 You also need to think about what people will be
doing, will the work they need to do have any
potential hazards – eg. Lifing heavy equipment,
climbing

9. Some Common Hazards
 Manual Handling – lifting heavy objects, using force
to lower, push, pull, hold or restrain a person, animal
or thing;
 Slippery or uneven floors
 Hazardous substances
 Noise
 Electricity
 Mechanical Equipment
 Working alone
 Violence in the workplace
 Stress

10. Activity 1
We will take a walk around the community and
see if we can spot some potential hazards.
Complete the checklist of for these hazards.

11. 2. Assess the risk
Assess the risk means working out how
likely it is that the hazard will hurt
someone and how badly they could be
hurt.
You can assess the risk by asking yourself two questions:
1. How likely is the hazard to hurt me or someone else?
2. How badly could I or someone else be hurt?

12. Risk Assessment Chart
How severely
could it hurt
someone; or
how ill could it
make someone
Very Likely
(could happen
any time)
Likely
(could happen
sometime)
Unlikely
(could happen,
but very rarely)
Very Unlikely
(could happen,
but probably
never will)
Kill or cause
permanent
Disability
1 1 2 3
Long term illness
or serious injury
1 2 3 4
Medical
attention and
several days off
work
2 3 4 5
First Aid
required
3 4 5 6
1 = top priority, 6 = lowest priority – do something when possible

13. Activity 2
For each of the hazards identified in
Activity one, on the Hazard Control
Worksheet, work out the severity of the
risk, the likelihood of it and its priority
rating.

14. 3. Make the changes
This means fixing the hazard yourself if
you can, or telling someone who is able
to fix it.
 It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure a safe
workplace
 Sometimes you may be able to fix simple hazards
yourself

15. The best way to fix a hazard is to get rid of it, but that’s
not always possible. There are ways that you can make
a hazard less dangerous:
1. Elimination
2. Substitution
3. Isolation
4. Add safeguards
5. Use the safest way to do something
6. Use personal protective equipment

16. Common measures taken to
lessen risk
 Safety signs and symbols
 Signs and symbols are used in a workplace to convey
information to workers and visitors to the site.
 There are three main types of safety signs used in the
workplace:

17. Picture signs using symbols or pictures.

18. Signs with only text based messages

19. Picture signs with a short message

20.  Picture signs are the best signs as they are understood
even by people that can not read or speak English.
 There are seven categories of safety signs identified by
colour and shape:

21. Prohibition signs – these are signs that indicate
something that you must not do: They are made up of
a red circle border with a line through it, a white
background and black symbol

22. Mandatory signs – these signs tell you that you must
wear some special safety equipment: They are made up
of a blue solid circle, white symbol, with no border.

23. Restriction signs – these signs tell of a limitation
placed on an activity or use in the area concerned.
They are made up of a red circular border, no crossbar,
and a white background.

24. Hazard warning signs – these signs warn you of a
danger or risk to your health: They are made up of a
yellow triangle with a black border, and a black
symbol.

25. Danger hazard signs – these signs warn of a
particular hazard or hazardous condition that is to be
life-threatening: They are made up of a white
rectangular background, with the word DANGER in
white on a red background, and black border and
black text.

26. Emergency information signs – these signs show
where emergency safety equipment is kept: They are
made up of a green solid rectangle, with a white
symbol or text.

27. Fire signs – these signs tell you the location of fire
alarms and firefighting facilities: They are made up of
a red solid rectangle, with white text.

28. Personal Protective Equipment
 Under safety laws employers must provide personal
protective equipment (PPE) and clothing for
employees when hazards in the workplace cannot be
eliminated.
 Employees need to be made aware of the requirement
to wear or use PPE before they start work
 Employees need to be trained in how to correctly use
any PPE. The employer has a duty to provide this
training
 PPE has to comply to relevant Australian Standards

29. Some common PPE
 Overalls
 Safety hats
 Safety boots
 Safety glasses
 Gloves
 Goggles
 Respirators
 Ear muffs
 Reflective clothing

30. Dealing with an Emergency
 Incidents and accidents will happen in the workplace
 It is essential that all employees know the location of
things such as first aid boxes, fire extinguishers, and
evacuation procedures
 All workplaces should have a incident reporting
process that should be followed in all incidents

31. A safe
workplace
Safe working
materials
Safe working
environment
Safe
Equipment
Safe
Premises

32. Safe
Staff
To be given
information
To be given
proper
instructions
To be
offered
relevant
training
To be
adequately
supervised