Crisis and Disaster for the Global-Free-Samples for Students

Questions: 1.Identify the breaches in WHS legislation, with specific reference to the legislation that applies in the case study i.e. NSW legislation. 2.Identify the hazards within the workplace. 3.Assess the risks associated with the hazards and determine the priority for risk treatment. 4.Identify appropriate management level controls to address non-compliance with Legislation. 5.Identify the risk controls applying the hierarchy of controls for the identified hazards. 6.Conduct a cost benefit analysis that clearly states the costs and benefits associated with the non-compliance, hazards and recommended controls. Answers: Introduction Hotels and resorts have become susceptible to the impact of crisis and disaster for the global environmental change and the security risks. There are a lot of uncertainties that can create crisis and disaster within the organization affecting the staffs and customers as well. Considering these facts, the government has introduced certain laws and policies that help to prevent hazards in the workplace. The case study of the hotel situated in The Rocks in the heart of Sydney has been providing cheap service since its inception. The present report would analyse the breaches in legislation and hazards and risks associated with it and its ultimate impact on the workplace. 1.Breaches in WHS Legislation with reference to case study According to New South Wales (NSW) legislations, Work health and safety laws (WHS) require the parties to consult and cooperate in the management of workplace risk to protect the health and the safety of the workers and all others who might be at risks at the work(Workplaceohs.com.au, 2015). WHS Legislation supports WHS act 2011 and WHS Regulations 2011 to guide the employers to comply with the safety laws. WHS Act 2011 No 10 (Duty of Care) states that it is the primary responsibility of the employer to ensure the safety of the workers by ensuring that the work environment, the system of work, machinery and equipment are safe for the workers. Chemical should be used stored, handled and used safely and there are adequate workplace facilities. The duty of Care seemed to be completely ignored in the hotel of the given case study. Firstly, the hotel is located in a risky area where robbery and assault are common and this threatens the safety of the worker and the guests. Secondly, the lift is old and out of orders and thus the system of work and equipment are not safe. Thirdly, the bottles of chemicals are not properly labelled and no information on the safe use of chemicals are provided. There are several instances of chemical injuries and some of them go unreported (Safework.nsw.gov.a, 2017). Division 3 of WHS Regulation 2011 mentions it is the duty of the organization to offer first aid equipment so that each worker has access to the equipment of first and staffs are trained to administer it. However, in the given case, there is no proper medical provision for which the staffs need to go to local doctors. Division 3 of WHS Act shows the importance of health and safety Representative (HSR). The given case shows that the Health Safety Representative have not completed HSR training and the HSR committee is made up of the staffs of administration area. Moreover, the committee is least effective in handling issues thus leading to breach of law (Legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2017). As per the section 19 of WHS Act, the management of the workplace should provide information, training and instruction regarding the type of work to be carried out, the nature of risks and control measures. However, in the given case, the new staffs within the organization does not undergo any training which affects their performance and staff turnover is high(Legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2017). Part 4.3 of WHS Legislation 2011 mentioned the risk of confined spaces and the need to avoid it. However, the case shows that the function area that has an accommodation capacity of 100 people has a booking of 150 guests. This can result in severe accidents and thus it breached the law. 2.Hazards within the workplace The analysis of the hotel of The Rock makes it evident that there are several hazards within the organization that affects the workers as well as the guests. Chemical hazards: This hazard is quite common in this hotel and there are several instances to chemical hazards are reported. The chemical bottles are not labelled properly and the suppliers do not provide accurate information about the ways to handle the hazards. The staffs and the guest, for coming in contact with fumes, have also encountered breathing difficulties (Case Study). Mechanical and electrical hazards: The lift of the hotel is old and often remain out of order. The reports of staffs' showed that last month the lift has broken down five times and once a guest suffered a stroke. Lack of maintenance can result in serious accidents and even death of the workers(Case Study). Psychological Hazards: This hazard is also common in this hotel due to the lack of proper working environment. The hotel is situated in a risky area and hence the employees remain under the fear of assault and robbery. Ineffective training and motivation have resulted in the frustration and the tiredness of the employees. This affects their psychological balance(Case Study). Manual handling: Manual handling risks can arise from pushing, pulling and lifting. Improper HSR training and the lack of written occupational health and safety plan increased the risk of Manual handling as the staffs are unaware of the risk and they do not receive proper training(Case Study). 3.Risk Assessment to determine the priority of Risk Ineffective risk assessment within the organization can create a negative impact on the organization. To evaluate the level of risks within the organization, a risk assessment has been carried out (Refer to Appendix 1). Risk assessment is the systematic process of describing and measuring the risks, which is related to hazardous substances, process, actions and events(Covello Merkhoher, 2013). In the given case study, the hotel does not have any written health and safety plan. Moreover, lack of proper training of the employees, maintenance of the equipment and work environment have increased the scope of risk. The risk assessment showed that the risk of death due to chemical injury is quite high. Moreover, the instance of long-term illness due to chemical and mechanical hazard is also high. The risk of obtaining medical attention and going for several days off due to psychological is a hazard is medium. It is also seen within the case study that last month, an unusual number of housekeeping staffs has been absent from the work. The rate of employee turnover is also high. This is due to the high amount of risk involved. The instance of the risk of requiring first aid from manual handling is medium(WorkCover NSW, 2014). 4.Management Level Control to address noncompliance with legislation The management of the hotel is responsible for maintaining compliance with the legislation. The management can employ some control to ensure that health and safety laws are followed within the organization. Reporting of the Breach of Law The supervisor is responsible for the initial identification and the notification of the breach. After carrying out assessment and investigation, the super visor should report the same to the Health and Safety Committee. This committee is responsible for consulting with the resident and owner and take corrective action. Implementing Duty of Care Checklist To prevent non-compliance of legislation, the management is responsible for preparing the duty of care checklist that would create knowledge about the hazards and risks associated with the work. The management is responsible for creating active and visible leadership by offering strategic direction through consultation and communication(Safety.uwa.edu.au, 2016). Development of WHS Policy The hotel should develop WHS policy based on NSW legislation. There showed be written health and safety plan. Failure to abide the policies can result in serious punishment and fines. Formation of Health and safety committee within the organization would help to address health and safety matters involving a representative from senior management, and general staffs. There should also be an Emergency Planning committee for handling the emergency within the organization. Regular Checking of work equipment All the equipment of the hotels like the lifts, electrical gadgets, and other machinery should be checked properly in order to prevent any accidents or hazards. It is the responsibility of the management to ensure a proper working environment for the employees and guests (University of Wollongong Australia, 2015). 5.Hierarchy of controls for the identified hazards As per the WHS Regulation 2011, the management of the organization should be responsible for implementing specific control measures within the organization to eliminate the risks. The Hierarchy of Hazard control that would be applicable in this case is illustrated below: Figure 1: Hierarchy of Hazard control Source: (Legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2017) The first stage includes elimination of risk and regular checking of the lifts and other electrical gadgets that are used by the guests and the employees can do this. Substitution of risk is done by implementing risk control measures. The employees should be properly trained to handle different equipment(Reese, 2015). The organization should oh health and risk committee to assess the risk associated with different levels. The chemical bottles should be labelled and the employees should have the knowledge to use them properly(Amyotte et al., 2009). Engineering control is the strategies used for protecting the workers. This prevention method is quite costly but it ensures safety and security of the workers. Employing Fume hood, Bio safety Cabinet to ensure safety. Administrative control is also essential, in which the management of the hotel needs to focus on employee training, preparing written health and safety measures and creating warning labels. Workplace Hazardous Material Information system can be effective in this case(Wu, 2012). Since the hotel staffs handle chemical staffs and other electrical equipment and fire, Personal Protective Equipment is essential. This can include gloves, uniform, hard hats, safety glasses and safety footwear. 6.Cost benefit analysis for noncompliance, hazards and recommended controls Cost-benefit analysis is the decision-making process that compares the cost and the benefit of a course of action and its impact on the organization(Sinden, 2016). In this section, a cost-benefit analysis of the noncompliance and the recommended controls would be carried out. The cost of hazards and noncompliance to WHS laws are listed below: If the organization does not follow the laws then it can result in severe accidents. For instance, the lack of maintained of lifts has resulted in the stroke of one aged guest. Non-compliance to the handling of chemical and hazardous substance can also result in severe injuries. For instance, improper labelling of bottles has resulted in several accidents. Non-compliance to improper training and knowledge sharing resulted in contact burns to hands and burns to eyes and even breathing difficulties. Non-compliance can lead the management to pay fines that would generate negative publicity. Moreover, strict investment from the legal authority can also result in the permanent closure of the organization. The benefits of the recommended controls are: Formation Safety Committee: The benefit of forming safety committee is that they would focus on identifying the policies and programs that would lead to the safety of the employees. This committee would be responsible for proper checking of the equipment and machinery within the workplace to prevent hazards(Health and Safety Authority , 2017). Offering Personal Protective Equipment: This would benefit the employees to handle chemical studs or sharp objects carefully and to prevent accidents. The employees would develop a sense of belongingness and their absenteeism would decrease followed by employee turnover. Training of safety and common employees: All the employees within the organization should be trained to their work. They should be trained to handle hazards and risk. This would help in reducing the risk of accidents(Chiang, 2000). Development of health and safety policies and written plan: This would benefit the organization in abiding the established NSW legislation related to health and safety. Thus, the goodwill of the hotel would increase as the employees and guests would get safety and security. 7.Consequences of not improving compliance and managing the workplace hazards The consequences of not improving compliance and inefficiency in handling hazards can be serious. The fatal accident is common if laws are not maintained. There is a risk of injury for the employees as well as that of the guests visiting the hotel (Dai et al., 2015). If the Health Safety Committee is not active then it can increase the risk of hazards. This committee overlooks congestion in the function area and this can result in severe fatal accidents(Reason, 2016). Non-compliance and increased hazards can increase dissatisfaction among the employees and guest resulting negative publicity of the hotel. The employee turnover would increase and none of the employees would able to provide effective service to the customers. The legal authority in NSW can provide charges on the organization for which the organization needs to pay fines. In some case, the hotel can be closed on a permanent basis. Hence, it is essential to comply with the established legislations (Hale et al., 2015). Conclusion The present report evaluates the hazards within the hotel given in the case study. The hotel has disregarded the established laws in NSW related to health and safety and this has increased the accidents. Lack of training of the employees and proper intervention of the management has further worsened the situation. The report provides suitable recommendation to comply with the laws and prevent hazards. Works Cited Amyotte, P.R., Pegg, M.J. Khan, F.I., 2009. Application of inherent safety principles to dust explosion prevention and mitigation.. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 87(1), pp.35-39. Chiang, L.C., 2000. Strategies for safety and security in tourism: a conceptual framework for the Singapore hotel industry. Journal of tourism studies, 11(2), p.44. Covello, V.T. Merkhoher, M.W., 2013. Risk assessment methods: approaches for assessing health and environmental risks. Berlin : Springer Science Business Media. Dai, H., Milkman, K.L., Hofmann, D.A. Staats, B.R.., 2015. The impact of time at work and time off from work on rule compliance: The case of hand hygiene in health care.. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(3), p.846. Hale, A., Borys, D. Adams, M., 2015. Safety regulation: the lessons of workplace safety rule management for managing the regulatory burden.. Safety science, 71, pp.112-22. Health and Safety Authority , 2017. Safe Hospitality. Legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2017. Work Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10. [Online] Available at: https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/2011/10/part5 [Accessed 25 Aigust 2017]. Reason, J., 2016. Managing the risks of organizational accidents.. London : Routledge. Reese, C.D.., 2015. Occupational health and safety management: a practical approach. London: CRC press. Safety.uwa.edu.au, 2016. Roles and responsibilities. [Online] Available at: https://www.safety.uwa.edu.au/management/about/accountability [Accessed 22 August 2017]. Safework.nsw.gov.a, 2017. DUTY OF CARE AND DUTY TO CONSULT. [Online] Available at: https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/law-and-policy/employer-and-business-obligations/duty-of-care-and-duty-to-consult [Accessed 25 August 2017]. Sinden, A., 2016. Cost-Benefit Analysis. Encyclopedia of Environmental Law: Environmental Decision Making, pp.1-17. University of Wollongong Australia, 2015. WHS LEGISLATIVE COMPLIANCE GUIDELINES. WorkCover NSW, 2014. Hazpack: MAKING YOUR WORKPLACE SAFER: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO BASIC RISK MANAGEMENT. Workplaceohs.com.au, 2015. NSW Legislation. [Online] Available at: https://workplaceohs.com.au/legislation/nsw-legislation [Accessed 25 August 2017]. Wu, S.L., 2012. Factors influencing the implementation of food safety control systems in Taiwanese international tourist hotels. Food Control, 28(2), pp.265-72.