Army - The Soldiers' Newspaper

New name, new structure: After the review at SME, members of the DFRT said all soldiers involved were to be congratulated for their professionalism and passion in their trade.

For a long time now there have been extensive efforts at all levels of Government and in the ADF to educate the public, employers and employees, not only in the hazards of the workplace, but their own responsibilities for safety.

We need to be aware of the September 2004 changes to the Occupational Health and Safety (Commonwealth Employment) Act 1991. This legislation affects everyone in Army.

Essentially it’s all about duty of care. Under the OHS Act this concept imposes obligations on all parties in a workplace to do all that is reasonably practicable to prevent workplace injury or illness.

A court of law interprets this as a balance involving the nature, likelihood and gravity of risk to safety with the cost, difficulty and trouble necessary to avert it.

Under the legislation, employers and employees have responsibilities to ensure a safe and healthy workplace. These may be summarised as:

Employers are required to take all reasonably practicable steps to protect the health and safety at work of their employees (e.g. electrical tools require not only safety guards, but PPE and appropriate training).
Employees are required to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that they do not take any action, or make any omission, that creates a risk, or increases an existing risk, to their health or safety or to the health and safety of other people at or near their place of work (e.g. failure to declare range produce after a range practice).

COMCARE has a number of useful employer and employee guides available in hard copy or on line at the publications forms section of its web site at www.comcare.gov.au

These include Safety at work – your Responsibilities Explained (employers) and Safety at Work – what you should know (employees).

Don’t be fooled by the language. We are talking about officers and soldiers here.

Under Commonwealth legislation all ranks are liable to heavy fines if they are found to have been deliberately in breach of safety legislation.

The maximum criminal and civil penalties that may be incurred for breaches of Commonwealth occupational health and safety provisions are detailed in the table on this page.

There is an old adage which says: “Beware the fury of a patient man.” Draw your own conclusions.

If you do what you have been trained to do, you’ll be fine. The penalties target only those who are negligent.
More information can be obtained at www.comcare.gov.au.

DESCRIPTION	CIVIL PENALTY for person or organisation	CRIMINAL PENALTY for person or organisation
Duties of employer re third parties	$242,000	$495,000 (for death/serious bodily harm); $330,000 (for exposure to substantial risk of death or bodily harm)
Duties of persons erecting or installing plant in a workplace	$242,000	$495,000 (for death, serious bodily harm or exposure to substantial risk of death or bodily harm)
Duties of persons erecting or installing plant in a workplace	$48,000/$242,000	$99,00/$495,000
Duties of employees re OHS	$9900	$19,800
Failure to comply with an investigator’s request for assistance.	$3300	$3300 or six months’ imprisonment or both.
Failure to ensure compliance with direction not to disturb a workplace.	$27,000	$55,000
Failure to ensure compliance with an Prohibition Notice	$27,000	$55,000
Failure to ensure compliance with an Improvement Notice	$1100 for each day on which section breached	$99,000
Tampering with or removing a notice	N/A	$3,300 or six months’ imprisonment or both
Wilful or reckless interference with protective equipment or safety device	N/A	$3,300 or six months’ imprisonment or both