Name: Ghulam Abbas Assignment: OHS in CPM

Roll: CE-119/2020-21 Fall Semester 2020-21

Within the context of health and safety; how do we define responsibilities and
accountabilities?

Responsibility is the obligation to carry forward an assigned safety related task to its

successful conclusion. With responsibility goes authority to direct and take the necessary

action to ensure success. Under WHS legislation all people, irrespective of whether they

are an employee, a manager or a contractor are responsible for identifying workplace

hazards, following all documented policies and procedures and stopping work if it’s

unsafe. Put bluntly there is no room for deciding not to follow a safety procedure or rule

neither electing to follow a creative short cut. Even if you are uncertain about the safety

rule you are still responsible for finding out what’s required.

Accountability is the obligation to demonstrate the task achievement and take

responsibility for the safety performance in accordance with agreed expectations. Also

accountability is the obligation to answer for an action. We can say then all people are

personally accountable for operating within the agreed safety boundaries and

expectations. This form of accountability finds its true meaning when it comes to a safety

leader ensuring there is a just and fair response following a breach. In other words there is

a transparent process of consequence management, which takes into account the nature

of the error. The question to be asked was the error intended or untended and the honest

answer to this question set within a clear just and fair framework will drive very different

responses. To this extent everyone exercises a safety accountability.

Name: Ghulam Abbas Assignment: OHS in CPM
Roll: CE-119/2020-21 Fall Semester 2020-21

However when it comes to the recognized safety leader it is a different starting

place. The safety leader is accountable for their team’s safety performance. You might be

wondering how is this so? There is one only reason and the answer lies in how safety

authority is given and understood. The safety leader is accountable for their team’s safety

performance as they are the person who ultimately decides what hard and soft resources

are allocated to a job, how the work is prioritized, when and how people are trained and

they are the final decision maker for stopping an unsafe job.