Chapter 23 - Work health and safety law. At the end of this chapter you should be able to: explain the key features of Australian work health and safety (WHS) law, identify the sources of Australian WHS law, summarise the statutory design of WHS law, | This is the prescribed textbook for your course. Available NOW at your campus bookstore! Work health and safety law Chapter 23 Learning objectives Learning objectives (cont.) recognise the relationship between WHS law and common, criminal and workplace relations law discuss the legal concept of a duty of care and how that duty can be met appreciate the different functions of WHS legislation, regulations and codes of practice distinguish WHS and workers’ compensations laws from other laws governing safety and injury compensation identify national WHS policy and law-making bodies and their roles and functions Introduction Work health and safety (WHS) law is one of the principal sub-sets of employment law in Australia. The term WHS law replaced occupational health and safety (OHS) law with the introduction in many Australian jurisdictions of model WHS legislation in January 2012. This body of law defines the rights and obligations of persons conducting a business or undertaking, workers and third parties relating to health and safety in workplaces. Development of work health and safety law WHS law has developed from the foundation of the common law duty of care and the moral duty of care owed by an employer to an employee to protect the health and safety of employees. Approximately 140 000 workplace injuries and 300 traumatic deaths occur each year. This does not include disease-related illness and death. WHS is clearly a major community and industrial issue. WHS law now forces managers and workers in workplaces to treat WHS as a core business issue which requires constant attention. Statutory design of work health and safety law Statute-based law The Constitution does not confer a specific power upon the Commonwealth, so primary responsibility lies with the state parliaments. Prior to the adoption of the model WHS Act this resulted in nine separate OHS systems. This created confusion for both employers and employees as there were many differences between . | This is the prescribed textbook for your course. Available NOW at your campus bookstore! Work health and safety law Chapter 23 Learning objectives Learning objectives (cont.) recognise the relationship between WHS law and common, criminal and workplace relations law discuss the legal concept of a duty of care and how that duty can be met appreciate the different functions of WHS legislation, regulations and codes of practice distinguish WHS and workers’ compensations laws from other laws governing safety and injury compensation identify national WHS policy and law-making bodies and their roles and functions Introduction Work health and safety (WHS) law is one of the principal sub-sets of employment law in Australia. The term WHS law replaced occupational health and safety (OHS) law with the introduction in many Australian jurisdictions of model WHS legislation in January 2012. This body of law defines the rights and obligations of persons conducting a business or undertaking, .
