Work Health and

Safety

WHS What it Means for

You

Introduction
Everyone has a right to be safe at work, including volunteers.
Volunteers play a vital role in communities across Australia every
day and Work Health and Safety (or WHS) laws help to protect
volunteers when they are carrying out work.

Work Health and Safety laws used to be different in each

jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions volunteers were given the same
protections as paid workers in the workplace and in other
jurisdictions volunteers were considered visitors or others in the
workplace.

On 1 January 2012 the Commonwealth, and most States and

Territories adopted new Work Health and Safety laws. The same
WHS laws will be adopted by Tasmania by 2013. Under these
new laws volunteers are given the same status and therefore the
same protections, as all other workers.

What is Work Health

and Safety ?

 You may also know Work Health and Safety as Occupational

Health and Safety or OHS. They are one and the same. Work
health and safety affects every Australian workplace.

Whether a person is a volunteer, a paid worker, a work

experience student or a contractor (or any other type of worker
you can think of) they have a right to have their health and
safety protected when they are carrying out work. People who
are affected by work, for instance clients you assist when you
are working, also have a right to have their health and safety
protected or not put at risk by the work being carried out.

Organisations like ours who engage workers of all types also

have work health and safety rights. Primarily, organisations
have a right to expect that all workers and visitors to their
workplaces will take care and co-operate with work health and
safety rules.

Work health and safety laws protect these rights.

Work Health and Safety

Laws

All Australian States, Territories and the Commonwealth have laws that
aim to prevent workplace death, injury and illness. But, as mentioned at
the beginning of this presentation, work health and safety laws have
recently started to become harmonised across Australia.
The main objective of the new WHS laws is to provide a balanced and
nationally consistent framework to secure the health and safety of
workers and workplaces. Some of the ways the laws do this is by:

protecting workers, including volunteers, from harm by requiring duty

holders to eliminate or minimise risks associated with work, whether
that work is paid or unpaid

providing for fair and effective representation, consultation, cooperation

and issue resolution in relation to work health and safety at work

promoting the provision of advice and education about work health and
safety, and

providing a framework for continuous improvement and progressively

higher standards of work health and safety.
The main responsibility for ensuring health and safety at work is placed
on persons conducting businesses or undertakings (PCBUs).

A PCBU is the organisation who you work for. For

simplicity, we will refer to them as the organisation
(rather than the PCBU).
Work health and safety laws require organisations to
think about and implement ways to make sure its
workers are provided the highest level of protection
against harm to their health, welfare and safety at
work, so far is reasonably practicable.
The new work health and safety laws means that
now organisations must ensure, so far as is
reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their
workers, just as they do for their other workers.

Who is covered by WHS

Laws?

Who is NOT covered by

WHS Laws?

What you need to know

Under WHS law health means physical and mental health. The
organisation you are volunteering for has to ensure that when you
are doing work for them you are safe from psychological injury
including from things like bullying, so far as is reasonably practicable.
The organisation must also manage risks by eliminating risks to
health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable. If it is not
reasonably practicable to eliminate risks, they must minimise those
risks so far as is reasonably practicable.
The organisation you volunteer for may help to ensure your safety by
doing a wide variety of things. This may include:

providing you with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment,

where required

giving you instructions or training on how to do your work safely

ensuring that the machinery or plant that you use meets safety
standards or requirements, or

confirming that you have the relevant qualifications to carry out

the work they give you. For example, first aid certificates or a
current and valid drivers license.

What you need to do

YOU have a duty under the WHS Act to take reasonable care for your
own health and safety. Taking reasonable care means doing what a
reasonable person would do in the circumstances having regards to
things like:

your knowledge
your role
yours skills and the resources available to you
your qualifications
the information that you have, and
the consequences to health and safety of a failure to act in the
circumstances.

Taking Reasonable Care

Taking reasonable care is simple. Just:

follow all reasonable instructions given to you as far as you

are able to,

cooperate with any reasonable policy or procedure that the

organisation has given you, and

talk to your managers if you have any concerns about your

health and safety or that of others in relation to your work.

Other ways of making sure you take reasonable care are:

carrying out tasks within the role you have been given
not doing tasks that you do not have the skills to undertake,
and

dont do anything that would be obviously unsafe.

Some examples of the things you can do to make sure what you do
is safe include:

Reading, understanding and cooperating with the policies and

procedures provided to you by the organisation you volunteer for.

If you are tired and your volunteer work involves driving, call the
organisation and say that you are unable to volunteer today.

If you are driving a client around in a car, ensure that you and
your client wear your seatbelts and obey the road rules.

If you are teaching someone to ride a bike, make sure they wear
a helmet and sturdy shoes.

WHS and Workers

Talking about Work

Health and Safety

Organisations must also consult with all their workers, including

volunteers, about work health and safety matters. Consultation must
include giving you opportunity to provide ideas about how to make
you and others as safe as possible when you are volunteering. This
can be done in various ways.

Sending out regular newsletters via mail or email which feature

work health and safety news, information and updates.

Regularly updating the volunteer section of its notice board or

website with information, including its latest safe work policies and
procedures

Having a suggestions email box for you to send suggestions to

about ways to do work safely and other matters

Holding regular meetings to talk with you about the work that you
do and how to do it in the safest way. This may include information
about emergency plans, exit routes and facilities, and

Holding toolbox talks where specific health and safety topics

relevant to the task at hand are discussed.

What if Something
Happens

Issue Resolution

If a work health and safety matter is still not

resolved after following the procedure, an inspector
may be called to attend the workplace to assist in
resolving the issue.

Things to Remember
So there are a few things to remember about Work Health and Safety:

Firstly: The WHS laws are designed to provide you, as a volunteer, with
the highest level of protection. The organisation you volunteer for has
responsibility to ensure it does all it reasonably can to keep you safe when
you are working for them. If an organisation is found to have not met this
duty, they may be fined or prosecuted.

Secondly: A safe workplace is most effectively achieved if everyone

contributes to finding ways to manage risks and works together to keep the
workplace safe.

And lastly: If you take reasonable care as a volunteer worker you cant be
prosecuted or fined and have nothing to fear.

In fact, prosecution of volunteers is quite unlikely under WHS laws. In some

jurisdictions work health and safety duties have been placed on volunteers
for more than two decades but there have been no reported prosecutions
of volunteers under those laws.

For more information on WHS laws, see the Essential Guide to Work Health
and Safety for Volunteers , located on the Safe Work Australia website.

Want more
information?