Classroom Activity

Health and Safety Laws

Short Answer Exercise
Resources:
safe@work General Module:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/safe@work/modules/general/laws.asp

WorkSafe Victoria provides useful information about Acts and Regulations here:
http://www.workcover.vic.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/WorkSafe/Home/Laws+and+Reg
ulations/Acts+and+Regulations/
and about Compliance Codes here:
http://www.workcover.vic.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/WorkSafe/Home/Laws+and+Reg
ulations/Occupational+Health+and+Safety/Compliance+Codes/D_Compliance+Codes

Task:
Work individually or with a partner and complete the six questions below:

1. What sorts of workplaces are covered by the Occupational Health and Safety Act
2004 (the ‘OHS Act’)?

Offices, hospitals, schools, factories, construction sites, farms and any place an
employee and self employee works/

2. Why is consultation an important part of Victoria’s health and safety laws?

Consultation in the act is important because discussion between representatives and
health and safety committees can allow to identify hazards in the workplace and to
generate effective OHS plans for safety control measures.

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 Classroom Activity
Health and Safety Laws
Short Answer Exercise
3. What are Compliance Codes? What sort of things do they cover?
Compliance codes are practical guidance to persons who have a duty or obligation
under the act. May cover control documentations.

4. List five of the hazards covered by Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety
Regulations 2007?
Exposure to substances, collapse of failure of excavation, fall from heights,
Collapse or partial collapse of building or structure, an implosion, explosion or fire.

5. Select one group of people who have specific responsibilities under the OHS Act.
What are their responsibilities?
Employees- when at work must take reasonable for their own health and safety, take
reasonable care of the health and safety of others who may be affected by the
employees acts at a workplace.

6. The OHS Act says that a person’s responsibility (or duty of care) applies only as far
as is ‘reasonably practicable’. What does this mean?
Reasonably practicable means the degree of risk for the particular situation balanced
against the time, trouble, cost and physical difficulty of taking measures to avoid the
risk.

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