subject: The New Australian Office Safety And Occupational Health [print this page] Safety is the number one priority in any workplace. The parliament of Australia has enacted a workplace occupational health and safety standard which discuss provisions in detail. It was also known as Australian Workplace Safety Standard Act 2005. This act has declared national standards and codes which should be exercised. The purpose of these mandatory standards is to particularly make consumer aware of the legal implications of workplace occupational health and safety. As a federation, Australia's six states and two international territories which should follow these laws. Back in 1985, the government had the NOHSC (National Occupational Health and Safety Commission) which specialized in office/workplace safety. This was replaced by the Australian Safety and Compensation Council in 2005, which was replaced by Safe Work Australia in 2009.
These regulations are operational in working towards reducing death, injury and disease in the working environment. Safety in the workplace is especially needed in these following industries: agriculture, forestry, fishing, construction, health and community services, manufacturing, mining, retail trading, transport and storage. These workplace occupational health and safety laws are constantly being improved to protect workers in the workplace.
The new changes in the act will be required to be in full swing and enacted by the end of this year 2011. By next year, the laws are expected to commence. Model Codes of Practice are being developed and should be simultaneously implemented with the model WHS regulations. Even if this is the case, legislators will still continue to develop model Codes of Practice beyond the end of this year.
The implementation of the workplace occupational health and safety will not have a national regulation. The commonwealth and each state will have to continue to regulate the administration of the laws in their specific jurisdiction. There might be some transitional arrangements which will be in place while the system transfers from one platform to another.
All these news laws which will be fully enacted are for the betterment of the workplace. Companies and specific industries should be ready with their office safety checklist as the year ends. January of 2012 will be a new year of enacting the new standards set in Australia and its international territories. What was discussed above is a basic overview of the new changes in safety regulations. The New Australian Office Safety and Occupational Health Standards are discussed in detail in Safe Work Australia website in much detail for more information.
