This presentation has been made available to the Uniting Church SA by Vivienne St. John Robb from Viv it up! (Corporate training and development with a difference) from sessions held at four metropolitan churches in March and April 2013, which included Morialta, Adelaide West,
Broadview and Colonel Light Gardens.

Uniting Church SA

•
The duty of care of the church has not changed under this new Act
• There are some changes to some obligations for some with some responsibilities

Objects:
• Protect workers and other persons against harm to their health, safety and welfare through elimination or minimisation of risks
• Fulfill duty of care
• Improve safety outcomes in workplaces
• Very proactive legislation
Regard must be had to the principle that workers and others should be given the highest level of protection against harm to health, safety and welfare

Definition of PCBU
For the purposes of this Act;
• A person may conduct a business or undertaking alone or with others &
• whether for profit or gain
• A volunteer association does not conduct a business or undertaking for the purposes of this Act
• A volunteer association means a group of volunteers working together for community purposes where none of the volunteers employ any person to carry out work for the volunteer association s5 WHS Act

Definition of Officer
• A person within the PCBU that creates policy, spends or commits money and makes or participates in making decisions that affect the whole or a significant part of the organisation s 27 WHS Act
• NB: The definition of officer is taken from the Corporations Act
Whether someone will be deemed as an Officer will depend on their decision making capacity and influence

Definition of a Worker
Worker is defined as:
A person carrying out work in any capacity for a person conducting a business or undertaking such as:
• An employee
• A volunteer
• Contractor or sub-contractor eg carrying out maintenance
• A student gaining work experience
• A person conducting the business or undertaking is also a
worker if they carry out work in the business or undertaking

What is a Workplace?
• Any place where work is carried out for a business or undertaking and includes any place where a worker goes, or is likely to be
• Including any congregational property or a vehicle

Primary Duty of PCBU
To ensure, so far as is reasonably practical the duty to:
• Provide safe environments
• Provide safe systems of work for workers and volunteers
• Provide safe equipment and structures
• Provide adequate support for the welfare of workers & volunteers
• Provide information, training, instruction or supervision
• Monitor the health of workers and volunteers’ conditions at the
workplace to prevent illness or injury s5 WHS Act
Must be proactive in providing the duty and cannot assume another has taken care of the WHS matter

Obligations of an Officer
Must exercise Due Diligence and take reasonable steps to:
• Acquire and keep up to date knowledge on WHS matters
• Have an understanding of the operations, hazards and risks
• Ensure the PCBU has available resources and processes to eliminate / minimise risks
• Ensure the PCBU has appropriate measures in place to receive and consider information regarding incidents, hazards and risks and responds in a timely way
• Ensure the PCBU implements required processes to comply
with any duty or obligation of the Act s27 WHS Act
Officers have a positive duty for proactive action

Duties of workers & volunteers
All workers and volunteers must:
 Take care of their own WHS
 Take reasonable care that their acts or omissions don’t adversely affect others
 Comply with any reasonable WHS instruction by the PCBU
 Comply with any reasonable WHS policy issued by the PCBU

Any Penalties
The WHS Act is all about prevention and being proactive
There are heavier penalties for any breach of the Act

What do you need to do?
• Provide a safe environment to all who come to your site
• A robust hazard identification and recording process
• Undertake risk assessments
• Apply risk elimination or minimisation activities
• Review risk control measures to ensure risk minimisation
CAUTION
HOT!

What is available to assist you?
The following resources are available from the
Synod office:
• Human Resource expertise and guidance
• Policies & procedures
• Hazard and Incident reporting tools and forms
• Induction checklists