PUN301 OHS Policy and Law

Learning Outcomes assessed

• Research OHS Policy and Law and apply it in organizational environments to influence improved decision making by duty holders.
• Apply relevant legislation and standards in the context of OHS management for legislative compliance.
• Integrate relevant legislation and standards across OHS, Industrial Relations,
  Rehabilitation and other safety-related areas in an organisational or/and incident context.
• Apply relevant legislation and standards for the purpose of managing third party interactions, due diligence and legal proceedings.

Prepare a detailed report informing of key safety-related legislative compliance functions and responsibilities of the businesses involved in the given scenario. As per the scenario, this report must inform the business on the issues, your research, conclusions and recommendations in an influential manner. Your assignment can refer to the legislation of the Commonwealth or any State and Territory. However, you cannot mix legislative pieces from different regions. Any case
law can be from any region, but make sure the content and context are relevant with the assignment’s scenario. Consider there might be legislation, codes of practices or other documents applicable across Australia.

Scenario:

You have been recently employed as the OHS Manager for Timber town. Timber town operates a business selling timber and building materials to trade customers from its premises. Mr. Jones is a director with day-to-day responsibility for running the
business. One day, Mr Smith was employed as a truck driver, driving a truck owned by his employer, We R Logistics Pty Ltd and was delivering to Timbertown timber supplied by Big Logs & Sons. The Big Logs & Sons premises were a large secured industrial site with dual access roads allowing delivery trucks to manoeuvre. There was a small workshop
housing retail items and a staff office and meal room. Delivery trucks attended the premises on a daily basis to deliver timber and associated items for sale by Timbertown. On that day, at approximately 5.30am, Mr Smith attended Big Logs & Sons’ premises to pick up the load of timber. Mr Smith’s truck was overloaded, overweight and stacked unusually with larger packs of timber stacked on top of smaller ones, and multiple packs sitting at an angle. The packs of timber were loaded by a forklift operator at Big Logs & Sons. Each pack of timber weighed between 200 and 800 kgs. Mr Smith strapped the load prior to proceeding to Timbertown’s premises for delivery. Mr Smith arrived at the Timbertown premises between 8am and 9am. It was the first time he had been to the premises. Mr Peters was employed by Timbertown as a yard man, and he was its only licenced forklift operator. When Mr Smith arrived at the premises, Mr Peters was in the process of loading another truck using the forklift. Mr Peters instructed Mr Smith where to park his truck in the yard. After Mr Peters finished loading the other truck, he drove the forklift towards Mr Smith’s truck. After a short discussion with Mr Smith, Mr Peters positioned the forklift on the driver’s side of the truck whilst Mr Smith commenced unstrapping the load. It was the responsibility of the truck driver to unstrap the load. Mr Smith unhooked the straps from the driver’s side of the truck and then walked over to the passenger side to pull the straps back. After Mr Smith had removed the straps, Mr Peters proceeded to remove one of the top packs of timber. Mr Peters drove the forklift to a point where it was at 90 degrees to the tray of the truck, adjacent to and facing the middle of the driver’s side of the tray. Mr Peters then raised the tines to remove one of the top packs of timber and drove the forklift forward. Mr Peters did not communicate any further with Mr Smith when he moved the forklift adjacent to the driver’s side of the tray and raised the tines. At this point, Mr Peters had no effective line of sight to Mr Smith. Mr Peters did not know the exact location of Mr Smith when he raised the tines. A short time later, Mr Peters heard a bang and saw other workers running towards the location of the truck. Mr Peters dismounted his forklift and proceeded to the passenger side of the truck where he reported seeing Mr Smith lying on the ground. Two packs of timber had fallen from the top of the truck, and there were blood stains on the plastic wrapping of one of these packs. An ambulance was called and arrived a short time later. Mr Jones was present at the premises on the day of the incident. He had commenced office duties from approximately 7.30am that day. He ran outside the office where he saw one of the Timbertown workers running across the yard, and he later spoke to emergency services personnel who attended the premises. Timbertown has asked that you provide an urgent report on the WHS obligations of the various businesses involved in the various worksites and what Timbertown should do to manage those
WHS obligations.

Reference: APA style, 7th  edition.