Project 1

You work in a large department store and are the newly appointed health and safety representative for your work group. The organisation is wanting in its compliance with health and safety compliance.

You have just completed an investigation and have discovered the following:

• workers are unsure of the health and safety legislation and codes of practice that relate to them
• workers have not received training in the organisation's health and safety policies, procedures and programs for two years and people are unsure which are current and which have been superseded
• there is no mechanism to inform workers of hazards (and their assessment) that have been identified in their work area
• historically there has been little encouragement or support for work teams to manage work area hazards
• if workers raised issues they were generally ignored
• there was little communication back to workers if consultation about health and safety issues did occur
• a health and safety training needs analysis has not been conducted for two years
• there are some pressing health and safety information gaps that can be addressed by training
• management are reluctant to approve health and safety training as they fear it will cost too much
• the workplace hazard assessment has not been updated for the last six months
• there are four hazards that were identified in the last hazard assessment that have not been actioned
• there is no procedure in place to use data to identify risks, control those risks, or monitor outcomes of reported inadequacies
• management are unsure of what health and safety records must be kept or how to fill them out

Your task is to create action plan (three-five pages) for what you will do to address these problems and turn your workplace into an example of health and safety best practice. Use the template provided as a guide.