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David answered on
Dec 21 2021
Occupational Health and Safety Law
Running Head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY LAW
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OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY LAW
Occupational Health and Safety Law
Name
Institution
Executive Summary
The Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) law focuses on ensuring health and safety of people in working environments. The law fosters a secure as well as healthy working environment. The report discusses in detail on findings of the Qantas airline non-compliance with OHS directives. It is apparent that the Qantas airline has failed to comply with OHS directives and endangered the lives of its workers. In that case, the report proposes two main proactive strategies in order for the company to ensure a safe working environment. These proactive strategies are ca
ying out a risk assessment for hazardous tasks and training employees on the proper way of handling equipments. The report also proposes two major performance indicators, which are a number of incidents and hazards reported and the number of training courses provided in the company. As a means to an end, the report focuses on other hazardous materials in the US, Australia and South Wales. Finally, the report ends with a conclusive summary.
Table of Contents
2Executive Summary
1.0 Introduction
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2.0 Non-Compliance Findings
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3.0 Proactive Strategies
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4.0 Performance Indicators
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5.0 Legislative Summary
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6.0 Conclusion
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References
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Occupational Health and Safety Law
1.0 Introduction
The Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) law focuses on protecting health, safety, as well as welfare of people in their working environment (Creighton & Rozen, 2007, p. 14). The main objective of this law is to foster a secure and healthy working environment. The OSH law helps in reducing worker’s illness and injury as well as related costs (CCH Editors, 2009, p. 49). Most companies such as the Qantas Airline have had legal problems due to non-compliance of OHS practices. Therefore, the main purpose of this report is to give succinct findings on the Qantas Airlines’ non-compliance with OHS directives. In addition, it describes two major proactive strategies, which ensure future compliance and discuss two performance indicators. As a means to an end, the report offers other occupational safety, as well as health legislation and guidance materials that are useful in researching hazardous manual tasks.
2.0 Non-Compliance Findings
The Qantas airline has been cited for repeat and grave violations of occupational health and safety. In 2006, Qantas Airlines joined forces with Caltex Petroleum Company in an effort to extract underground fuel at Sydney international airport. The Qantas airline did not have necessary expertise in conducting the entire extraction process; and though they knew this, they continued with the risky procedure. Qantas had received only basic extraction information hence the process was conducted without sufficient security information. This endangered one of the employees as he conducted an unsafe procedure that was contrary to OHS practices. The employee was not trained on how to extract oil and did not have any protective gear to protect him from risk. He however continued with the procedure and later Qantas was charged in section 8 (2) of the OHS Act of 2000 for failing to ensure employee protection. The airline company later pleaded guilty and acknowledged that it had failed to come up with written procedures for contracted work before starting its work. The commission affirmed that an employer ought to ensure that workers are safe and the environment is conducive to employees (“Workplace Relations,” 2012).
The OHS Act focuses on ensuring that employers prioritize on the safety and health of their employees (“Hazardous Manual Tasks,” 2011). In addition, in section 25 of the OHS Act, an employer should ensure that all materials, equipments as well as protective devices are provided (“Occupational Health and Safety Act,” n.d). In that case, the company failed to ensure employee safety as it allowed one of its workers to ca
y out a dangerous operation without training and protective devices.
According to Hazardous Manual Tasks (2011, p. 4), companies have a responsibility to ensure that they exercise due diligence in order to guarantee that their workers are complying with the Work Health and Safety Act (WHS). This means that reasonable steps ought to be undertaken in order to eliminate and reduce risks that often arise from hazardous manual tasks. In section 47, persons who are conducting any form of business ought to consult with workers who are ca
ying out their work. In that case, it is apparent that...