WHS or OHS, it can get a little confusing?! - Introducing Safe Work Australia

For any person reading health and safety law in Australia albeit Work Health and Safety (WHS) or Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) it can be very challenging. For the record, all states and territories bar Victoria now operate under WHS legislation but not the same WHS legislation as there are variations across the states and territories! This leaves Victoria operating under OHS legislation alone. Even in Victoria there will be some organizations that fall under the Commonwealth so WHS will apply. Confused? Who would be a National WHS/OHS manager?! So much for harmonization but then harmonization was never really going to be anything other than a different set of differences, once the dust had settled.

Now let’s put a positive spin on all of this. You only need to know what you need to know in health and safety. You do not need to know everything and those that pretend they do are easily found out.

This is where Safe Work Australia should be introduced. Safe Work Australia is an Australian government statutory agency that develops national policy to improve work health and safety (WHS) and workers’ compensation arrangements across Australia.

As a national policy body, Safe Work Australia does not regulate health and safety laws or administer workers’ compensation arrangements as Commonwealth, states and territories regulate and enforce health and safety laws and administer workers’ compensation schemes in their jurisdictions.

Note that whilst OHS gets barely a mention on the Safe Work Australia website, WorkSafe Victoria is fully on board with WorkSafe Victoria’s current Chief Executive, Colin Radford as one of the 15 members. The functions of Safe Work Australia are to

• Develop, evaluate and if necessary revise National policy, strategy, the model WHS legislative framework and other WHS material
• Develop proposals to improve workers’ compensation arrangements, and to promote national consistency in such arrangements
• Collect, analyse and publish relevant data
• Develop and implement national education and communication strategies and initiatives
• Collaborate with the Commonwealth, the States and the Territories, and other national and international bodies, on WHS and workers’ compensation policy matters
• Advise the WHS Ministers on national policy matters and initiatives relating to WHS and workers’ compensation
• Undertake any other functions that are conferred on it

Safe Work Australia came into its own during the COVID 19 pandemic. As employers searched for guidance on working from home, it was Safe Work Australia that was delivering the goods by covering the topic in depth. 

As some employers continue to support working from home, it may be timely to revisit support arrangements to ensure that ergonomics and psychosocial hazards are identified and controlled.

Safe Work Australia guidance covers the following

• What must I do when workers are working from home?
• What are the WHS risks of working from home?
• Mental health risks and working from home
• Looking after the mental health of workers at home
• Who is responsible for ensuring that my workers have a safe workstation set up to work from home?
• What do I need to do about home workstation set ups?
• Am I required to provide my workers with equipment to enable them to work safely from home?
• What are my obligations to my workers to ensure that they have suitable breaks and work reasonable hours while working from home?
• I have workers working from home who are also caring for, and educating, their school aged children who are unable to attend school. What are my obligations towards these workers? 
• How can I support my workers who are finding working from home stressful and it is negatively impacting their mental health? 
• One of my workers has contracted COVID-19 while working from home. What should I do? 
• When should workers return to the workplace? 
• Can I direct my workers back to the usual workplace?
• Where can employers get more information on working from home?

https://covid19.swa.gov.au/covid-19-information-workplaces/industry-information/home-services/working-home

The associated checklists have proven most useful to achieve compliance.

The Safe Work Australia website is packed with a wide range of material covering the following

• Safety by topic
• Law and regulation
• Data and research
• Workers’ compensation
• Resources and publications

Whilst it is important to follow the health and safety requirements of the jurisdiction that you are working in, it is also part of the state of knowledge to consider what other relevant information is available to do what is reasonably practicable to ensure compliance.