42
OHS
STOP!
Ask yourself “Are your WHS
Management Systems really working?”
Organisations spent considerable time, money
and resources on implementing Work Health
and Safety Management Systems (WHSMS) and
yours is probably one of them. There must to be
good reasons for all of this effort.
a. developed by informed and competent
people
b. in consultation with stakeholders
The most likely choices include;
c. understood by the workers who need to use
it, and
• a genuine concern for the health and
wellbeing of at risk workers
d. those workers are furthermore ready, willing
and able to apply its requirements
• to comply with the law
Unfortunately, it often occurs that the main
purpose of the risk assessment is to simply
complete the paperwork.
• to meet customer requirements and/or to
protect business interests
Regardless of the reasons why a WHSMS is
established, the real goal should be to make the
workplace safer for everyone who is involved
with or affected by the organisation’s operations.
There are any number of different takes on
how to implement a WHSMS and there is even
some research that indicates that these are
working. Safe Work Australia has published
fact sheets on five strategic industry sectors
and the overall incidence of serious injury
has reduced by 30% in the 11 years since
2000. This might be a cause for celebration,
except that we really can’t be certain that our
management systems are actually the cause of
this improvement.
Effective WHS Man