Safety Work Procedure
Australia has some of the stringent regulations put in place to ensure safety of employees in all different occupations. It is no wonder then that safety work procedure that is now a requirement in different jurisdiction all over the world originated in Australia. Commonly referred to as SWP or SOP in other work areas, the work procedure serves as a guide for all employers to be able to identify all the risks at the workplace and design appropriate mechanisms of containing the same. The work procedure is a document that is prepared before the commencement of a specific task to be undertaken by employees. The document remains in force from the start of the project to completion.
The safety work procedure is designed in a specific fashion, initially elaborating the task to be undertaken by employees. It details all that employees will be required to accomplish at every stage of the task and the equipments and tools that they will require for accomplishing the task. The document goes ahead to identify all the risks and dangers that the concerned employees are likely to face in the course of the task. Such risks and dangers are inclusive of all risks posed by equipments and machinery. For risks and dangers that cannot be prevented, the document caters a guideline on how to contain them to reduce their chances of occurrence. Although the document indicates the end of a tasks or project, it goes on to identify residual risks that a completed task may pose and ways of targeting them.
The responsibility of readying the safety work procedure is in most cases upon a safety committee comprising membership from different sections or departments. The same committee is usually in charge of implementing the document apart from ensuring that all employees assigned to a project are properly educated on what is expected of them. It is a fact that risks and dangers change as work progresses and those charged with the responsibility of preparing the document should ensure that such changes are incorporated into the document.
In Australia and some jurisdictions, workplace safety regulations make it mandatory for all employers to have in place a well-developed safety work procedure and concerned employees educated on it provisions. Failure to have a safety procedure leads to a criminal offense punishable by prison term, fine or both. In extreme cases, vital operation licenses can be withdrawn.
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