A workplace Safety Inspector visits what now?
In Victoria, the Victorian WorkCover Authority or WorkSafe as its commonly known administers the state’s health and safety laws, each state jurisdiction has its own regulatory body and OHS/WHS legislation.
The legislation articulates the duties and rights of employers, employees and other relating to health and safety. The legislation and in Victoria the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) provides for the appointment of inspectors and gives them the powers to inspect, give advice, investigate and enforce health and safety laws in a workplace.
Inspectors will typically visit a workplace in response to an incident, complaint or as part of a strategic project to influence an industry, sector or particular hazard.
In addition to providing information and guidance during a workplace inspection, Inspectors require a duty-holder to fix an alleged health and safety issue or breach.
Inspectors have a number of powers und the legislation which they can use at their discretion to resolve an alleged breach in the workplace including but not limited to:
Improvement notices identifying a breach and requiring it to be fixed by a certain date
Prohibition notices identifying a breach and an immediate or imminent risk and requiring that the activity must stop until the risk is remedied
Giving verbal directions that a certain action be taken to mitigate an immediate risk
When identifying breaches and exercising their powers Inspectors will often use terms such “so far as is reasonably practicable” (SFARP) what is SFARP will depend on the exact situation and includes factors such as:
Likelihood
Potential consequence(s) including degree of harm
State of knowledge within the organisation, industry and community
Availability and cost of risk controls
When faced with a regulatory notice such as an Improvement or Prohibition Notice MicroRisk Group can assist you with preparing a plan and taking action that ensures your business meets its obligations when the Inspector returns and minimises interruptions to you operations. See our Services for more information.