Occupational Safety and Health Requirements

Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992

This Act aims to prevent harm to employees at work. It provides rules and guidelines for protecting health and safety in the workplace. The Act imposes responsibilities and duties on certain people and protects rights.

People affected by the Act

People affected by the Act include:

• employers - people or organisations that pay employees to do work for salary or wages
• employees - people employed to do work in exchange for salary or wages
• contractors and subcontractors - people engaged by any other person (other than as an employee) to do work for gain or reward (although if you are a contractor or subcontractor you may also be an employer, and a person who controls a place of work)
• principals of contracts - people who sign contracts with contractors (people who want work done)
• persons who control places of work - owners, lessees, occupiers and so on of places of work or plant (equipment) in the place of work.

Under the Act, all these people must take all practicable steps to ensure that no other person is harmed while doing any work. 'Practicable' means feasible or possible to do.

The Act does not apply to residences. Householders who hire people (whether as employees or contractors) to work solely on or in their homes do not have any responsibilities under the Act.

Regulations and offences

The Act makes it possible to create regulations that relate to health and safety. Regulations may impose duties and obligations on employees. Regulations may require people doing certain types of work to hold certificates of competence. People involved in scaffolding work, for example, need to hold a certificate of competence. Another example is the regulations covering safety frames on tractors.

The Act also specifies offences:

• People commit an offence if they fail to comply with particular sections of the Act.
• It is an offence to knowingly take any action that is likely to cause serious harm to any person.
• It is an offence to knowingly fail to take action if that failure is likely to result in serious harm to any person.

The main purpose of the Act

The main purpose of the Act is to prevent harm to employees at work. Some key terms are:

• Harm means illness, injury, or both.
• Serious harm includes death and conditions such as loss of bodily functions, noise-induced hearing loss, cancer, dermatological disease, poisoning, vision impairment, fractures, amputations, burns, loss of consciousness from lack of oxygen, lacerations, and crushing.
• A hazard is 'an activity, arrangement, circumstance, event, occurrence, phenomenon, process, situation or substance that is an actual or potential cause or source of harm.' Examples of hazards include:
  • badly worn tools
  • oil or fuel spills
  • poorly secured overhead objects
  • sharp objects
  • poor lighting
  • fumes and vapours
  • inadequate ventilation
  • faulty electrical wiring
  • unsafe work practices.
• A significant hazard is a hazard that is an actual or potential cause of:
  • serious harm
  • harm where the severity of effects depends on how long a person is exposed to the hazard
  • harm that is not detectable until a significant time after exposure to the hazard.

Significant hazards may not always appear obvious. On July 25 an Air France Concorde took off and crashed in flames shortly afterwards, killing all 109 on board and four people on the ground. France's Air Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA) released a preliminary report in August 2000 with a picture of a metal strip, probably from another aeroplane, which was found on the airport runway.

Activity

Consider your own workplace and make a list of examples, or potential examples, of the following:

• harm - injury, illness, or both
• serious harm
• hazards
• significant hazards.