Four Steps to Achieve Effective WHS Consultation
Managers and Supervisors do have a very important role to play in helping to achieve compliance with WHS legal requirements and a safe and healthy workplace.
A key part of this role involves the area of consultation with workers and others in your workplace about WHS matters. Directors and CEOs cannot always do this themselves, so they use and rely on their management team to give and obtain information to and from the workforce.
A business must consult with everyone in the workplace who might be affected by a WHS matter before decisions are made.
Four steps to consult
Effective Consultation between management and the people in the workforce involves four steps, which are:
Talk to each other about health and safety concerns
Listen to concerns and raise concerns
Seek and share views and relevant work health and safety information
Consider what workers and others say and give them a reasonable opportunity to contribute to the decision making process
When do you need to consult?
A business (PCBU) is required by the WHS Act to consult with workers and others when any of the following occur:
When identifying and assessing health and safety risks in your workplace
When making decisions about how to eliminate or minimise those risks
When making decisions about facilities for the welfare of workers
When proposing changes that may affect the health and safety of workers
When making decisions about:
- procedures for consulting with workers
- resolving health and safety issues
- monitoring the health of your workers
- monitoring conditions at the workplace
- providing information and training for workers
Encouraging cooperation and representation
Your consultation efforts will be helped by encouraging workers in your area of responsibility to:
Ask questions about health and safety
Raise concerns and report problems
Make recommendations
Be part of the problem-solving process
Consultation Arrangements under the WHS Act
In a small workplace where workers can directly approach the business owner or CEO, consultation can take place directly. For bigger companies it may be better to do what it says in the WHS Act and formalise consultation arrangements by establishing work groups and have health and safety representatives to represent the people in those work groups. For very big businesses it may be useful to establish a health and safety committee for the "big ticket items" that affect the workplace as a whole.
You may find other useful information on this subject in the Consultation, Cooperation and Coordination Code of Practice published by SafeWork NSW.
Courtenell delivers a number of training courses that cover the subject of PCBU consultation, WHS duties, and duty holders. See here: All Courtenell WHS Courses