Apply OHS legislation

The main piece of health and safety legislation in NSW is the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act 2000. This sets out the basic requirements that people in the workplace must follow. People in the workplace include:

  • employers
  • employees
  • clients
  • sub-contractors
  • all people who use the place for work
  • volunteers
  • visitors
  • anybody who sets foot in the place.

Purpose of OHS

The OHS Act provides laws that aim to create a safer workplace for all people, both paid and unpaid. The workplace should:

  • have safe places to work
  • have safe systems of work
  • practice safe ways of working
  • maintain set safety standards.

Unions, employers and employees together support these laws so that workplace injuries and work related diseases can be prevented.

Your responsibility as an animal carer is to:

  • be aware of the potential hazards that you may encounter at your workplace
  • take steps to reduce the risk of injury or illness occurring to you at your workplace.

Employers responsibilities

Legislation makes the employer responsible for the health, safety and welfare of all employees at work. Heavy fines or legal action may result from confirmed breaches of the OHS regulations.

The aspects of workplace safety that employers are responsible for include:

  • providing safe equipment
  • ensuring safe use, storage and handling of the equipment
  • providing training
  • providing continual education on safety
  • ensuring availability of information about dangerous products used at work
  • supervising
  • protecting the welfare of people in the workplace—eg pregnant women must not be allowed near areas where dangerous drugs or radiation are used.

Other responsibilities of the employer include:

  • consulting employees about OHS matters, so that employees can contribute to decisions affecting their health, safety and welfare
  • providing workers compensation insurance policy covering all employees
  • providing a Register of injuries book in which workers should write work related injury details, this including near misses. There is a fine for not having one
  • displaying a summary of the Workers Compensation Act in the workplace
  • sending any workers compensation claims to the relevant insurance company within seven days. Again there is a fine for not doing so
  • paying any compensation benefits received from the insurer as soon as possible
  • providing rehabilitation if required
  • not dismissing staff because of their injury within six months of them becoming unfit for work unless the doctor deems them unable to ever return to work.

Employees’ responsibilities in the workplace

Employees are responsible for using safe work practices, cooperating with the OHS policies and procedures of their workplace. This includes:

  • preventing injuries to themselves and others at work
  • co-operating with the employers in safety issues—ie wear protective gear
  • reporting unsafe conditions and equipment
  • reporting an injury as soon as possible
  • attending medical examinations as directed by the insurer or employer
  • providing accurate information about any aspect of their claim
  • participating in a rehabilitation program after injury.

OHS compliance workplace inspections

To ensure OHS compliance workplace inspections can be conducted by either:

  • an authorised inspector
  • an employee representative.

An authorised inspector:

  • ensures that employers have appropriate health and safety standards in place and makes sure people are complying with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and its regulations
  • may take samples and the carry out a range of tests
  • can be accompanied by an employees’ representative during an inspection, if requested
  • can enter a workplace at any time without notice and spot check to see all rules are being complied with
  • can visit anonymously if they have been informed by an employee of a breach of OHS regulations

An employee representative:

  • authorised officers of unions can enter, without notice, any premises where members of that union, or persons who are eligible to be members of that union, work to investigate suspected breaches of occupational health and safety legislation.

OHS resources

WorkCover NSW has a very comprehensive website on OHS which can be found at www.workcover.nsw.gov.au

In New South Wales the legislation is administered by WorkCover NSW whose primary objective is to work in partnership with the NSW community to achieve safe workplaces and effective return to work and security for injured workers.

Occupational health and safety (OHS) laws in New South Wales consist mainly of:

  • a number of Acts of Parliament, and
  • regulations made under those Acts.

In addition, codes of practice and Australian Standards may also contain requirements that apply in many cases.

You will find codes of practice available on the WorkCover website. These give practical guidance on ways in which the standards of health and safety required by the law can be met. Australian Standards are documents setting out technical matters, such as design specifications or the proper use of equipment. Australian Standards do not have the force of law unless they are adopted—or‘called up’—in the legislation.

Other resources

  • The Australian Safety and Compensation Council website is at www.ascc.gov.au.
  • Employer associations, industry organisations and unions are also often able to answer questions over the phone. Up-to-date contact numbers for these can be found in the telephone directory.

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© NSW DET 2006