Health and Safety in Shearing (PDF 917kb) - WorkSafe Victoria

4.2 Duties of employeesAn employee must• take reasonable care for his or her own health andsafety and for the health and safety of anyone elseat the workplace• cooperate with his or her employer with respect toany action taken by the employer to ensure healthand safety• not interfere with or misuse anything provided inthe interests of health safety or welfare• not place at risk the health or safety of any personat the workplace.4.3 Health and Safety RepresentativesThe Act provides for a group of employees, adesignated work group, to elect a health and safetyrepresentative if they want to. A shearing team wouldconstitute a designated work group. A duly electedhealth and safety representative is authorized by theAct to undertake a range of actions for the purposes ofhealth and safety including the issuing of provisionalimprovement notices to the employer. Electing ahealth and safety representative is a good way ofensuring effective consultation on health and safetymatters and can be considered part of a ‘best practice’approach.If practicable, an employer shall consult the healthand safety representative of a designated work groupon all proposed changes to the workplace, the plant orsubstances used at the workplace or the conduct ofwork at the workplace that may affect the health orsafety of any member of the designated work group.A health and safety representative may be disqualifiedfor failing to meet their duties as prescribed by theAct.Further information about health and safetyrepresentatives is provided in the publications listedin Section 4.4.4.4 Occupational health and safety regulationsand codes of practiceIn addition to the legal duties under the Act there areRegulations addressing health and safety issues thatemployers and employees must comply with. Theseissues include asbestos, plant users and operators,confined spaces, hazardous substances, incidentnotification, issue resolution, manual handling, noiseand plant.There are also codes of practice that provide guidanceto employers and employees on managing health andsafety issues such as confined spaces, first aid,hazardous substances, manual handling, noise, plantand workplaces.Relevant Regulations and Codes are listed inAppendix 1.For general information about the legal duties ofemployers and employees see the WorkSafe Victoriapublications:• All About WorkCover for Workers• All About WorkCover for Employers• Contractors and WorkCover• Getting started with Workplace Health & Safety– Introduction to Health and Safety Responsibilities,Roles and Functions, Training, Information andRecords4.5 Is it practicable?Employers and employees are required to carry outtheir duties as far as is practicable.To decide what is practicable the following need tobe considered:• the severity of the hazard or risk• what is known about the hazard or risk and howit can be controlled• the availability and suitability of ways to controlthe risk• the cost of controlling the riskIt is important to note that the cost of controlling therisk is only one of the four factors to be consideredwhen deciding what is practicable.Health & Safety in Shearing 5