The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (the Act) is the cornerstone of legislative and administrative measures to improve occupational health and safety in Victoria and to make WorkSafe a more constructive, accountable, transparent and effective regulator. The Act outlines the following principles:
1. The importance of health and safety requires that employees, other persons at work and members of the public be given the highest level of protection against risks to their health and safety that is reasonably practicable in the circumstances.
2. Persons who control or manage matters that give rise or may give rise to risks to health or safety are responsible for eliminating or reducing those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.
3. Employers and self-employed persons should be proactive, and take all reasonably practicable measures, to ensure health and safety at workplaces and in the conduct of undertakings.
4. Employers and employees should exchange information and ideas about risks to health and safety and measures that can be taken to eliminate or reduce those risks.
5. Employees are entitled, and should be encouraged, to be represented in relation to health and safety issues. As well as the above principles, the Act also outlines the duties and rights in relation to occupational health and safety. The general nature of the duties imposed by the Act means that they cover a very wide variety of circumstances, do not readily date and provide considerable flexibility for a duty holder to determine what needs to be done to comply. Effective OHS regulation requires that WorkSafe provides clear, accessible advice and guidance about what constitutes compliance. This can be achieved under the Act through regulations, Compliance Codes, WorkSafe Positions and non-statutory guidance (“the OHS compliance framework”).
The elements of the OHS Compliance Framework are:
•The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004: The Act sets out the key principles, duties and rights in relation to occupational health and safety.
• Regulations: Regulations specify the way in which a duty imposed by the Act must be performed, or prescribe procedural or administrative matters to support the Act (e.g. requiring licences for specific activities, the keeping of records or giving notice).
• Compliance Codes: Compliance Codes provide practical guidance to duty holders. If a person complies with a provision of a Compliance Code, they are deemed to comply with the Act or regulation duty covered by the Code provision. However, Compliance Codes are not mandatory, and a duty holder may choose to use some other way to achieve compliance.
• Non-statutory guidance: Includes information published by WorkSafe aimed at building people’s knowledge and awareness of OHS issues, risks to health and safety, and the disciplines and techniques that can be applied to manage and control risks. Non-statutory guidance is not mandatory, nor does it provide any “deemed to comply” outcomes for duty holders. This guidance does, however, form part of the ‘state of knowledge’ about OHS1 .
• WorkSafe Positions: These are guidelines made under Section 12 of the Act that state how WorkSafe will apply the Act or regulations or exercise discretion under a provision of the Act or regulations. WorkSafe Positions are intended to provide greater clarity to duty holders and other affected parties.