Workplace Health And Safety

Workplace health and safety duties are almost always qualified by the phrase so far as is reasonably practicable. That wording is not a softener. It is the test, and it has content.

Weighing what is reasonably practicable involves the likelihood of the hazard occurring, the degree of harm that might result, what the person knows or ought reasonably to know about the hazard and the ways of eliminating or minimising it, the availability and suitability of those ways, and finally the cost.

Cost sits last for a reason. It can only be weighed after the others, and a control is only disproportionate if it is grossly so relative to the risk.

The practical implication is that we could not afford it is rarely an answer on its own. What is required is showing the weighing actually happened.

Safe Work Australia publishes the model WHS laws. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s work health and safety course and risk management system.