Legislation

Health and safety legislation enacted by a Government Authority, Agency or Body establishes health and safety guidelines and requirements that affects most workplaces and the performance of work tasks, processes and/or activities within a given geographical area where such legislation is enforceable by a statute regulator or authority.

The objective of health and safety legislation is to ensure that a person or persons at or in an area adjacent to a workplace or part of a workplace are not affected by the workplace or exposed to the risk of death, serious injury or serious illness through the performance of a task, process and/or activity undertaken at the workplace.

Act

An Act that relates to occupational health and safety shall formulate and specify the framework by which an organisation shall prevent or minimise a person's exposure to risk through the:

• Imposing of a duty of care upon a person or multiple person/s where the action or decision of that person/s will, may or is likely to have a direct affect upon the health and safety of another person at a workplace;

• Making of Regulations, Codes of Practice, Standards, etc to assist persons and industry with the management of occupational health and safety issues and matters.

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Regulation

An occupational health and safety regulation is prescriptive as to the procedures, systems or methods to be implemented so as to prevent or control certain hazards that have the potential to cause death, serious injury or serious illness to persons at a workplace.

A regulation shall prescribe the means by which administrative matters such as incident reporting, registration of plant, etc, shall be dealt with whilst assisting persons and industry with the management of occupational health and safety issues and matters.

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Duty of Care

Statute occupational health and safety legislation applicable to the geographical location of a workplace imposes a specific duty of care upon persons, and references specific regulations which prohibit or prescribe ways to minimise or prevent a person's exposure to a risk.

Persons upon whom a duty of care is placed would include but not be limited to:

• A person who conducts a business or undertaking for remuneration, payment, gain or reward.

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Codes of Practice

Where a code of practice has been developed about a risk at a workplace and prepared by a Government Authority, Agency or Body in consultation with industry bodies or representatives, an employer shall either:

• Adopt the recommendations contained within the code of practice; or

• Adopt an alternative method which provides persons with the equivalent level of protection against the risk; and

• Ensure that all reasonably practicable precautions are taken.

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Managing Exposure to Risks

Where a regulation or code of practice has not been developed or prepared in relation to a specific risk, an employer has a duty of care imposed by health and safety legislation applicable to a workplace given its geographical location to manage a person's exposure to the risk.

An employer has a duty to assess the risk to persons undertaking the performance of a task, process or activity to determine an appropriate method by which to undertake the task, process or actvity whilst implementing the required control measures to eliminate or minimise the risk to persons whilst exercising due care.