Work­place Health and Safety

Critical to employers

Overview

Work­place Health and Safe­ty (WHS) is an area of crit­i­cal impor­tance for all employ­ers. It can give rise to sub­stan­tial legal and rep­u­ta­tion­al risks. These risks include sig­nif­i­cant penal­ties, adverse pub­lic­i­ty and exclu­sion from gov­ern­ment and com­mer­cial tenders.

It is not suf­fi­cient to sim­ply address these risks reac­tive­ly in the event of an acci­dent – employ­ers need to estab­lish and main­tain a sophis­ti­cat­ed safe­ty man­age­ment sys­tem. This entails the devel­op­ment and effec­tive pro­mul­ga­tion of poli­cies and pro­ce­dures, train­ing of work­ers in the safe­ty man­age­ment sys­tem and the imple­men­ta­tion of a process of audit and con­tin­u­ous improvement.

We work with employ­ers in all aspects of WHS com­pli­ance. This includes devel­op­ing and review­ing safe­ty poli­cies, for­mu­lat­ing and deliv­er­ing ful­ly tai­lored WHS train­ing (includ­ing at Board lev­el) and the pro­vi­sion of tech­ni­cal­ly sound, com­mer­cial­ly astute WHS advice.

In the event of an inci­dent we also act for employ­ers at all stages in the inves­ti­ga­tion and pros­e­cu­tion process, includ­ing defend­ing mat­ters in court. 

We have recent­ly act­ed for a range of organ­i­sa­tions, includ­ing both pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor employ­ers, in var­i­ous WHS matters. 

Exper­tise

  • Pro­vi­sion of advice on all aspects of WHS law (includ­ing offi­cer and employ­ee obligations)
  • Pro­vi­sion of bespoke train­ing on WHS laws for staff (includ­ing at Board level)
  • For­mu­la­tion and review of WHS policy
  • Deal­ing with Safe­Work NSW
  • Deal­ing with unions on safe­ty issues
  • Deal­ing with Health & Safe­ty Representatives
  • Respond­ing to Safe­Work NSW notices 
  • WHS cri­sis response (includ­ing deal­ing with stake­hold­ers and media)
  • Coro­nial investigations
  • Defend­ing Safe­Work NSW prosecutions
  • WHS – coro­nial inquests
  • WHS – pol­i­cy review
  • WHS – deal­ing with Safe­work NSW & Cri­sis response Inves­ti­ga­tions by exter­nal regulators
  • Train­ing

Use­ful Links

Safe Work Australia

Work­place health and safe­ty (WHS)