Occupational health and safety is the responsibility of all parties. As a service provider, your duty of care for occupational health and safety is to provide a safe working environment for your staff and clients. You also need to make employers and job seekers aware of their duty of care.
Health and safety in the workplace is about preventing work related injury and disease, and designing an environment that promotes wellbeing for everyone at work.
Knowledge is the key ingredient in providing a safe work environment—if everyone knows the correct procedures then accidents and injuries can be kept to a minimum.
The following checklists are also available to help you and employers provide a safe working environment:
Employer responsibilities with health and safety
It is an employer's responsibility to provide a safe work environment for all employees, free from any hazards and complying with all state and federal laws.
Occupational health and safety procedures must be implemented wherever the work is being conducted, be that in an office, factory, construction site or home.
Employers should develop and have in place an occupational health and safety policy to meet the following standards:
- ensure that the way work is done is safe and does not affect employees’ health
- ensure that tools, equipment and machinery are safe and are kept safe
- ensure that ways of storing, transporting or working with dangerous substances is safe and does not damage employees’ health
- provide employees with the information, instruction and training they need to do their job safely and without damaging their health
- consult with employees about health and safety in the workplace
- monitor the work place regularly and keep a record of what is found during the checks.
Policies should be developed in consultation with all employees. In some instances it may be necessary for employers to organise support persons or interpreters for employees with disability so that all employees may participate in the consultation process.
Reasonable adjustments
Employees with disability may require reasonable adjustments to ensure safety in the workplace, such as changes to work processes or equipment, or adjusting work schedules.
The law states that, whenever it is necessary, possible and reasonable, employers should take into account a person's disability and make appropriate adjustment to the work environment to accommodate that person.
Overall, if an employer is aware of an employee’s disability they have a legal obligation to provide what is deemed 'reasonable adjustment' to accommodate the needs of that employee.
Reasonable adjustments enable an employee with disability to:
- perform the inherent or essential requirements of their job safely in the workplace
- have equal employment opportunities such as recruitment processes, promotion and training opportunities
- enjoy equal terms and conditions of employment.
The limit on reasonable adjustment—unjustifiable hardship
Employers are obligated to make reasonable adjustments unless that adjustment will result in ‘unjustifiable hardship’. More information about the concept of unjustifiable hardship can be found on the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission web site (see Related Links).
Employee responsibilities with health and safety
Employees also have responsibilities under occupational health and safety law. They must act responsibly, take care of themselves and others, and cooperate with their employer in matters of health and safety. This applies to all workers, whether they have a disability or not.
Employees who don’t do these things, could be disciplined by their employer under their conditions of employment, or they could be prosecuted under the occupational health and safety laws in their state or territory.
In addition, under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 an employee's ability to work safely is an inherent requirement (i.e. an essential requirement) of any job. If an employee's disability could reasonably be seen to cause a health and safety risk for other people in the workplace, then failing to disclose that risk could be a breach of their obligations under occupational health and safety legislation.
Need help?
Contact the JobAccess Advisers on 1800 464 800 or online for more information:
State and Territory contacts
You can also check specific employer information and obtain advice by contacting your state and territory occupational health and safety authority. Contact details are available through the links below (please note that these links will take you to an external site in a new window).
Australian Capital Territory—ACT WorkCover
New South Wales—WorkCover NSW
Northern Territory—NT WorkSafe
Queensland—Queensland Government, Department of Employment and Industrial Relations
South Australia—WorkCover South Australia
Tasmania—WorkCover Tasmania
Victoria—Victorian WorkCover Authority
Western Australia—WorkSafe
Australian Safety and Compensation Council
The Australian Safety and Compensation Council works with state and territory governments, employers and employees to prevent workplace death, injury and disease and to improve workers compensation arrangements and rehabilitation and return to work of injured workers.
In addition, the Office of the Australian Safety and Compensation Council has produced a report that answers the question: Are people with disability at risk at work?
See our Related Links for a copy of the report and to read more about occupational health and safety on the Australian Safety and Compensation Council web site.