Attachment A

WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY FOR MOP(S)ACTEMPLOYEES

What do MOP(S) Act employees need to do?

  • Your employing parliamentarian and Finance have overlapping but different work health and safety (WHS) responsibilities in your workplace. Under the WHS Act you must comply with any reasonable policies, procedures or instructions relating to work health and safety that have been notified to you by your employer or Finance. This extends beyond designated WHS policies and procedures, and includes all general work instructions that could affect health and safety within your workplace.
  • You must consider at all times how your own activities and behaviour will affect people in your workplace: yourself, your employer, your colleagues and other persons, both physically and psychologically.
  • Your duties under the WHS Act are limited by what you are reasonably able to do, taking into account the degree of control you have over your work activities and work environment.

Identifying and reporting hazards and incidents

  • If you identify any WHS hazards, you must:

–eliminate or minimise any risks you can, where it is safe to do so

–alert colleagues in the vicinity immediately; and

–report the risk to Konekt and the WHS Site Officer for your office, as soon as practicable.

  • If you are involved in, or witness an incident in the workplace, it must be reported to your WHS Site Officer and Konekt as soon as practicable after it occurs, even if no-one is injured. This will assist Finance and your Senator or Member to respond to the incident and take any action required by the WHS Act.

Detailed information about reporting hazards and incidentsis available from the Ministerial and Parliamentary Services (M&PS) website.

Workers with designated WHS roles

Some MOP(S) Act employees are nominated by their employing parliamentarian to be trained to perform designated WHS roles within the workplace, such as: WHS Site Officer, First Aid Officer or Emergency Officer. These roles are one way that risks to work health and safety can be identified and effectively managed

If you are a WHS Site Officer, a First Aid Officer or an Emergency Officer, you must:

  • complete your training as soon as practicable
  • fulfil the duties of your role, as set out in your duty statement and discussed during your training; and
  • understand and meet all the reporting requirements of your role (for example, it is a requirement set out in the WHS Site Officer duty statement that the WHSSite Officer must return a quarterly site inspection report to Konekt).

You should promote an effective health and safety culture in your workplace on an ongoing basis, by:

  • understanding your role in the workplace;
  • reinforcing and influencing safe behaviours in your workplace;
  • discussing hazards or other safety matters you are aware of with your colleagues, Konekt and/or your Senator or Member. If something looks wrong, or unsafe, report it; and
  • working with your Senator or Member and Finance to identify safety problems and find solutions.

Performing a designated WHS role does not make you an ‘officer’ under the WHS Act.

You can check which WHS Roles are required within your office on the M&PS website. Speak to your employing Senator or Member if there is no one carrying out these WHS roles in your office.

Training and information

The M&PS website contains:

  • online training on a range of WHS topics
  • a collection of WHS resources covering situations that you may encounter during MOP(S)Act employment
  • WHS policies issued by Finance following consultation with parliamentarians and MOP(S) Act employees.

Consultation

Your Senator or Member and Finance are required by the WHS Act to consult with you on matters affecting your health, safety and welfare at work.

The workforce of all MOP(S) Act employees is divided into work groups, based on the political party their employing parliamentarian represents (staff of independent parliamentarians form one work group). Each work group elects Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs), who consult with Finance through the WHS Committee for MOP(S) Act employees. You may raise WHS matters with Finance at any time through your elected HSRs, or by contacting the StaffHelpDesk.

WHS Rights as a Worker

You may cease work if you have a reasonable concern that the work would expose you to a serious risk to health or safety, from immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard.

You are not required to remain at any place that poses a serious risk to your health or safety. If you cease work due to a WHS issue, you must notify your employing parliamentarian and Finance as soon as practicable after doing so. In this situation, you must remain available to carry out suitable alternative work.

In some situations, your M&PS State Manager may request that you evacuate your office for safety reasons. This step is only taken if there is a serious risk to health and safety associated with the office. Should this occur, you must not return to the workplace until Finance has confirmed that it is safe to do so.

Managing staff

MOP(S) Act employees who manage staff or make decisions about work that may affect the health and safety of other persons play an important leadership role.

MOP(S) Act employees who manage staff need to:

Stay informed

  • keep yourself and others in your workplace informed of work health and safety issues that could affect the workplace
  • identify risks and hazards in the workplace and ensure that there are systems in place to eliminate or minimise those risks and hazards
  • familiarise yourself with the WHS information available on the M&PS website at:
  • complete any online WHS training administered by Finance
  • attend tailored training courses presented by Comcare; and
  • familiarise yourself with the resources available to workers in your workplace. Konekt is available to provide WHS advice of a general or specific nature.

Ensure that WHS systems are working

  • continuously review the systems in place in your workplace to ensure that they are performing effectively; and
  • where you rely on the expertise of another person, such as another MOP(S) Act employee who is performing a designated WHS role, confirm that they are meeting the requirements of that role.

Be aware of risks to psychosocial health and safety

Staff who have been authorised by their Senator or Member to exercise management responsibilities, particularly those who are able to appoint, engage, direct or terminate the employment of MOP(S)Act employees, should:

  • familiarise yourself with risk factors within the workplace that could contribute to psychosocial injuries
  • eliminate or minimise those risks to the extent practicable; and
  • consult with your Senator or Member and the relevant Finance Entitlements Manager at the first signs of a risk to psychosocial health within the workplace.

Influence others

  • influence other workers to value health and safety, by changing unsafe work behaviours
  • set clear expectations about the accepted safety standards in the workplace; and
  • model health and safety at work at all times.

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