BSBOHS509A: Ensure a safe workplace
This unit covers the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to establish, maintain and evaluate the organisation's occupational health and safety (OHS) policies, procedures and programs in the relevant work area in accordance with OHS legal requirements.
Managers play an important role in ensuring the safety of the workplace and the wellbeing of their staff. This unit applies to managers working in a range of contexts. It takes a systems approach and ensures compliance with relevant legislative requirements.
All those who have, or are likely to have, a management responsibility for OHS should undertake this unit.
Performance criteria
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1. |
Establish and maintain an OHS system |
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1.1 |
Locate and communicate OHS policies which clearly express the organisation's commitment to implement relevant OHS legislation in the enterprise |
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1.2 |
Define OHS responsibilities for all workplace personnel in accordance with OHS policies, procedures and programs |
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1.3 |
Identify and approve financial and human resources for the effective operation of the OHS system | |
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2. |
Establish and maintain participative arrangements for the management of OHS |
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2.1 |
Establish and maintain participative arrangements with employees and their representatives in accordance with relevant OHS legislation |
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2.2 |
Appropriately resolve issues raised through participative arrangements and consultation |
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2.3 |
Promptly provide information about the outcomes of participation and consultation in a manner accessible to employees | |
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3. |
Establish and maintain procedures for identifying hazards, and assessing and controlling risks |
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3.1 |
Develop procedures for ongoing hazard identification, and assessment and control of associated risks |
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3.2 |
Include hazard identification at the planning, design and evaluation stages of any change in the workplace to ensure that new hazards are not created by the proposed changes |
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3.3 |
Develop and maintain procedures for selection and implementation of risk control measures in accordance with the hierarchy of control |
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3.4 |
Identify inadequacies in existing risk control measures in accordance with the hierarchy of control and promptly provide resources to enable implementation of new measures |
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3.5 |
Identify intervention points for expert OHS advice | |
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4. |
Establish and maintain a quality OHS management system |
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4.1 |
Develop and provide an OHS induction and training program for all employees as part of the organisation's training program |
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4.2 |
Utilise system for OHS record keeping to allow identification of patterns of occupational injury and disease in the organisation |
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4.3 |
Measure and evaluate the OHS system in line with the organisation's quality systems framework |
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4.4 |
Develop and implement improvements to the OHS system to achieve organisational OHS objectives |
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4.5 |
Ensure compliance with the OHS legislative framework so that legal OHS standards are maintained as a minimum | |
Skills and Knowledge
Required skills
- analytic skills to analyse relevant workplace data in order to identify hazards, and to assess and control risks
- communication skills to consult with staff and to promote a safe workplace
- problem-solving skills to deal with complex and non-routine difficulties
- technology skills to store and retrieve relevant workplace data.
Required knowledge
- application of the hierarchy of control (the preferred order of risk control measures from most to least preferred, that is, elimination, engineering controls, administrative controls, personal protective equipment)
- hazard identification and risk management
- relevant legislation from all levels of government that affects business operation, especially in regard to OHS and environmental issues, equal opportunity, industrial relations and anti-discrimination
- reporting requirements