Safety Management Consultants for WHS & OHS legislation

The WHS (Work, Health and Safety) legislation across Australia — the OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) Act in Victoria — requires that responsible officers positively demonstrate due diligence with regards to safety. This means that risks be should eliminated or, if this is not practicable, reduced so far as is reasonably practicable (SFAIRP).

Essentially thelegislation requires a positive demonstration of due diligence or SFAIRP. This is a paradigm shift from the traditional hazard based approach (encouraged by the risk management standard) to a precaution based risk management process.

The ‘Y’ model approach was developed by R2A with Gladstone Area Water Board in 2011 to specifically address the requirements of the model Act. The process has been applied to many companies and authorities since, always to the satisfaction of relevant legal counsel. The steps involve:

• Identification of all Credible Critical Issues

• Identifying all Practicable Precautions

• Determining Reasonable Practicability

• Barrier Implementation and Quality Assurance