OH&S in Australia applies across all Industries anywhere that people are employed to work. This includes both the Employee and contractor. OHS or Occupational Health and Safety in Australia has been around since 1956 when a magistrate ruled that the employer has a responsibility to provide a safe system of work.

Employers have a duty of care to provide a safe system of work and employees have a duty of care to follow whatever directions they are given by the employer. This is some debate about whether OHS legislation has gone to far for employers. Whilst there may be some basis for this argument, many employers are not effectively giving their employees and contractors clear directions, nor are they ensuring that the directions are being followed.

When employers across Australia have become more effective at giving clear directions and implementing them, a reduction in workplace deaths and injuries will follow. Many larger companies have demonstrated this, however a large percentage of smaller employers do not have the resources to make the same changes as larger companies. As processes for directing and monitoring OHS policies and preocedures become more effecient, the effectiveness of the smaller employers to provide safe systems of work will improve also.

OHS Consultants across Australia are charging a premium for their services to help companies comply with OH&S legislation. Safety Culture has been developed to provide affordable resources to employers to make them available to both small and large companies.

For any OHS System to be effective, it needs to be in writing. Having your company OH&S policies and procedures in writing demonstrates exactly what has been explained to the employee or contractor and they can also sign off and commit to following the company OH&S System.

For a ready to use OH&S System visit Safety Culture

Apart from having a written OHS Manual, the next step is to conduct an OHS Audit. The aim of this is to simply create a step by step process to achieve a Safety Culture throughout the workplace. A comprehensive OH&S Audit will indentify and prioritise areas for improvement throughout the companies operations. Once your OHS risks have been indentified, you can develop a timeline and work through the steps one at a time. For the best OHS Audits click here.