Employer Safety Compliance Obligations
We’re here to help you understand your compliance obligations as an employer, in the clearest terms possible.
Your safety obligations as an employer in Australia
Every employer must comply with safety legislation.
Safety authorities take the view that businesses should not be operating unless they can do so safely. What’s more, safety authorities have the power to stop businesses from operating immediately if they breach legislation or are not compliant. They also have the power to prosecute individuals under criminal law.
This is why it’s absolutely essential that you understand your safety obligations as an employer in Australia. Understanding your obligations and learning how to create a safer working environment often takes expert advice and guidance.
Our workplace safety compliance experts provide advice, implement changes, and even provide easy-to-use workplace safety software solutions to monitor and track training for your compliance reporting. This gives you complete clarity and peace of mind when it comes to your safety obligations as an employer.
Key compliance requirements under Australian safety laws
The key compliance requirements are essential to ensuring that your business is operating legally, and safely. Your obligations include adhering to each of these requirements. They can be summarised into nine key areas which include:
Identifying hazards, assessing and reducing risk
Providing and maintaining safe plant and equipment
Maintaining a healthy and safe work environment
Storing, using and transporting substances safely
Ensuring safe systems of work are in place and maintained
Ensuring workers are consulted on matters affecting their safety
Ensuring adequate instruction, training and supervision is provided to workers and others such as visitors
Notification and reporting of incidents
Notification and reporting of incidents
Systems for managing emergencies such as fire and injuries
Systems for managing emergencies such as fire and injuries
Notification and reporting of incidents
Consultation for a safer workplace
Consulting with employees is an important part of creating a safer workplace. This process ensures that existing or new safety procedures are as effective as possible and implemented in a smooth manner. Workers also offer further perspective and experience on risk in the workplace.
Notifiable incidents
Employers have an obligation to follow the correct incident notification protocol. This includes reporting and recording incidents, utilising the right documentation. At Your Safety Partners, our team can help you implement an effective system for incident notification, ensuring that you are meeting your obligations.
This is incredibly important, because if you do not follow correct procedures, you may be breaching legislation.
Are you concerned about safety compliance in your workplace?
We can help.
Under Work Health and Safety Acts, directors of businesses and their senior managers have a proactive Duty of Care. In essence, this means the employer, director, or senior managers hold the main responsibility for the health and safety of their employees, as well as visitors and contractors in the workplace.
To fulfil an obligation to duty of care, employers must demonstrate that they are:
- Keeping up-to-date with health and safety knowledge;
- Understanding the hazards and risks facing the organisation;
- Providing appropriate resources and processes to address hazards and risk;
- Demonstrating a timely response to incidents; and
- Having processes in place to ensure legal compliance.
Penalties for breaching compliance or not fulfilling obligations include a fines of up to $19.23M $ and/or up to twenty. seven years jail in the case of workplace death.
New Industrial Manslaughter laws
All States and Territories except for Tasmania have introduced new Industrial Manslaughter laws, enabling senior managers to be jailed for up to 27 years for workplace deaths in some States.
All States have provisions in their safety legislation enabling criminal charges to be laid against “Senior Officers”. However, new Industrial Manslaughter laws have significantly increased jail time. Working with a safety consultant from Your Safety Partners can help you feel confident that you have met your workplace safety obligations.
Companies Your Safety Partners has worked with
Get in touch
Book your free one hour on site safety consultation
A workplace safety consultant can also ensure the owners and managers of businesses meet their safety compliance requirements. This helps protect them from compensation or legal costs.