New work health and safety laws coming into effect Thursday, March 31 have wide implications.
“What do the new Workplace Health and Safety Regulations mean for my business?
“How will I be affected by the new Workplace Health and Safety Regulations?”
“What are my responsibilities under the new Work Health and Safety Regulations?”
These are all questions you might be asking yourself with the introduction of the new Work Health and Safety Regulations, luckily Rapallo is here to help in these confusing times!
New Workplace Health and Safety Laws
On 31/03/22 the new work health and safety laws will come into effect. Not knowing how these laws can affect you and your business could have devastating consequences, especially now that people within the organisation can be liable for hefty fines and even jail time for failing to meet the requirements set out in these new regulations. That’s right! You or somebody you work with could be liable for failing to properly maintain their plant and machinery.
New Responsibilities? Introducing the Persons Conducting Business
To reduce corporate negligence, the Western Australian Government have introduced the concept of the Persons Conducting Business or Undertakings (PCBU). PCBU’s are responsible for a wide variety of things and can even face jail time if they don’t meet their obligations.
Do you know your obligations?
Not only will these new laws force people to perform their roles and responsibilities, but they will also completely change what those roles and responsibilities are! When the Work Health and Safety Regulations (2022) come into effect, they will completely replace the Mines Safety Inspection Regulations [1995] and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations [1996], meaning that most PCBU’s won’t even know what their responsibilities are or even if they are a PCBU! If you’re reading this from the comfort of your own office, or even from the workshop floor you could be a PCBU and not even know it!
What is actually changing?
At Rapallo we have been preparing for the introduction of these new regulations for over 2 years! After each publicly released iteration, one of our resident plant legislation experts has been reviewing the draft laws, to find out exactly what is coming. Just a few of the changes that might affect your workplace are as follows:
- Australian Standards are no longer referenced in legislation (except AS4343). Why and what to do?
- There is no longer any reference to ‘Classified Plant’ and the ‘Classified Plant Record Book’ is no longer required on Western Australian Mine Sites. What replaces this and what do we do?
- Changes to regulations identifying when a person is competent to inspect plant for registration. What to do to manage this?
- Significant changes to the registration of Plant (formerly Classified Plant) what requires registration, who does registration, which authority does it get registered with, what records to keep, etc?
- Significant changes to the reporting of incidents of damage to plant. What is the change and how will this be managed and complied with?
- Significant changes to the regulations for repairs and alterations of plant. How do we repair and/or alter plant and comply with the new regulations?
There are far too many changes to list in one article, but hopefully, this gives you an idea about how large some of these changes are, and exactly what they mean for plant and machinery maintenance in Western Australia.
Where can I find out more?
Rapallo has been working with plant and machinery since its inception in 1987, since then our team has been at the forefront of the management of these types of assets and how to navigate the legislation and Australian Standards, give one of our expert team members a call to assist you with any further queries you might have. Our team also offers the best plant management training in Western Australia, nobody else has the practical knowledge and experience that Rapallo can offer. We offer courses of any number of people and can adapt our teaching methods and material to best suit your business.
