Procedure: Work health and safety legal and other requirements

Purpose

This procedure describes how the Australian National University (ANU) manages Work Health Safety legal and other requirements for the work health, safety, rehabilitation and claims (WHS) management systems. WHS Legal and other requirements is a requirement of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) (WHS Act), the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth) and the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (Cth). This document is linked to the University’s Work Health and Safety Policy and is one of the WHS Management System Procedures.

Procedure

Scope

1. This procedure applies to all activities conducted on or on behalf of the University with the potential to impact on work health and safety. ‘Other requirements’ refer to a range of matters including standards, codes of practice and the self insurance framework that impact on or influence WHS in the business.
2. The procedure describes how the University will:

• identify the relevant WHS legal and other requirements;
• monitor WHS legal and other requirements for changes;
• update procedures and processes to reflect changes to WHS legal and other requirements;
• communicate and report any changes to WHS legal and other requirements; and
• satisfy legal requirements to undertake specific activities as prescribed by the WHS Act.

Identifying WHS legal and other requirements

3. The Associate Director Work Environment Group (WEG) will ensure that all WHS legal and other requirements are identified from:

• the WHS hazard registers as per the WHS hazard management procedure;
• the review of documents as per the WHS documentation procedure;
• the WHS legal and other requirements annual review conducted in the third quarter of each year as part of the WHS planning, objectives, targets and programs procedure.

4. The WHS legal and other requirements identified from these processes will be documented in the relevant WHS Management System document.

Monitoring WHS legal and other requirements

5. The Associate Director WEG will monitor, review and document any changes to the WHS legal and other requirements through the annual review and ongoing monitoring.

Annual WHS legal and other requirements review

6. The Associate Director WEG in the third quarter of each calendar year will conduct a review of the WHS legal and other requirements register for thoroughness. In this review, they shall identify redundant and new WHS legal and other requirements. They will also ensure that all links to online resources function for the current requirements and archive any hardcopies of redundant WHS legal and other requirements.

Ongoing WHS legal and other requirements monitoring

7. On a monthly basis, the Associate Director WEG will monitor online sources and other membership publications for any changes to WHS legislation and other requirements including the:

• Comcare website;
• Safe Work Australia website;
• Federal Register of Legislation subscription;
• OHS Alert subscription (daily updates and weekly summary updates of all legislative changes);
• Parliament of Australia website;
• SH&E Monitor from SAI Global; and
• standards online from SAI Global.

8. The Manager Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation (MIPR) WEG also monitors the legislative changes, receiving the same subscriptions as the Associate Director WEG. If a change is missed or overlooked by the Associate Director WEG, it will be noticed by the MIPR and actioned. The MIPR will cover all of the duties of the Associate Director WEG in the event of an absence.
9. Additionally, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) receives written communications via the Office of the Vice-Chancellor from the Chief Executive Officer of Comcare of all upcoming legislative changes, legislative changes, feedback requested, changes in premiums etc. These messages are forwarded to the Associate Director WEG to be actioned. This serves as an additional fail-safe system for legislative compliance should one of the other methods of monitoring fail.
10. The Associate Director WEG will record the results from the monitoring and the annual review in the register of legislative changes. The MIPR will record the monitoring results in the absence of the Associate Director WEG.

Updating procedures to reflect changes to WHS legal and other requirements

11. The Associate Director WEG will document all actions to update procedures and the training program in the register of legislative changes as per the requirements of the WHS documentation, WHS training and the WHS hazard management procedures.
12. The Associate Director WEG will monitor the actions for completeness and report the progress as per the WHS management review procedure.

Communicating and reporting changes to WHS legal and other requirements

13. The Associate Director WEG will communicate changes to WHS legal and other requirements to relevant stakeholders as per the WHS management review procedure and the WHS communication and consultation procedure and through the following forums and tools:

• a standing WHS Committees agenda item
• a standing WHS Council report and agenda item
• updates to the Work Health Safety intranet pages
• updates to Local area WHS internet pages.
• updates to the Local area WHS notice boards and/or Registrar Student Life when applicable
• a standing WHS Officers agenda item, and
• by email to other relevant stakeholders such as WHS consultants and Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs).

14. The Associate Director WEG will communicate all WHS legislative changes and other requirements to the Director of Human Resources, who will ensure that the COO, the Senior Managers Group (SMG), Service Division Directors and General Managers (SDD/GM) and any other relevant groups are made aware and can action accordingly.

Satisfy WHS legal requirements to undertake specific activities

15. The Associate Director WEG will ensure the WHS management system documents remain current and reflect any changes in legislation, including via the following ways:

• Licences / training requirements will be stated in the WHS procedures. Licences shall be carried by all workers at all times for licensed work.
• Certificates of competency will be stored in personnel files as per the WHS training procedure.
• Notifications for incidents will be documented as per the WHS incident management procedure and communicated as per the WHS communication and consultation procedure.
• Notifications for WHS workplace entry by HSRs will be documented as per the WHS committees and representatives procedure.
• High risk plant will be documented in a register.
• Chemical management, radiation management, and biological management will be documented as will other high risks.
• Any other relevant requirements will also be documented.
• Approvals or exemptions to any of the above will be documented.

Sources