We’ve been hearing about a frighteningly high number of workplace incidents involving people losing their fingers this year, resulting in some large fines and over half a million dollars in fines and reparations collectively.
In all cases, the Court found there was a failure to follow basic machinery safety standards.
A workplace injury does not necessarily mean the employer is at fault, but as a business you are required, and must be able to prove, that you’ve taken all reasonably practicable steps to minimise and avoid any harm to your employees.
So what are your obligations as an employer?
Understanding your obligations is the first step.
As an employer you’re expected to identify and assess potential risks in the workplace, take measures to eliminate or minimise, all hazards and risks, provide adequate training and supervision to employees, and review and update health and safety policies and procedures regularly.
Your employees must be involved in health and safety matters too, and they must be provided with relevant information and instruction.
As an employer, you are responsible for carrying out a meaningful assessment and this includes identifying:
- The likelihood of hazards and risks occurring.
- The degree of harm that might result from these.
- What the person concerned knows, or should reasonably know, about the hazard or risk and ways of eliminating these.
- The availability of ways of eliminating and minimizing hazards and risks, and keeping it sustainable.
Getting it wrong
Failing to comply with your obligations can have serious consequences for your business. Companies can be fined up to $3 million for each offence and ordered to pay reparation. Individuals within your company can also be fined up to $600,000 and ordered to pay reparation, with prison terms of up to five years.
Many of the prosecutions we see are due to the absence of appropriate policies and procedures or failing to comply with them.
How business advisory services can help
We can help you start to identify the risks and hazards in your workplace and areas where practices can be improved, put the right procedures in place and create a health and safety policy for your business.
If you do receive an improvement notice, we can guide you and help you put forward a response to WorkSafe.