Maintaining A Safe Workplace Requires Sustainability Of The Health System.

Discuss about the Sustainability of the Health System for Maintain a Safe Workplace.

The government of Australia is very strict about ensuring safety and health of the people. Thus any industry right from the risky atmosphere where work goes on in high temperature to places which are having a more comfortable and cleaner ambience all are expected to abide by the requirements of the WHS standards. In this case the place of work is in the hospitality sector which has a more comfortable and convenient set up. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the extent to which this hotels plan given in Resource 5.4 is secure and some general comments on the WHS aspects in the hospitality industry (Boxall, 2011).

It may be added here that when a place is safe people are more confident of visiting these places and therefore a review of the safety aspect is of vital importance in the Hospitality industry. 

The layout of the drawing provided may be evaluated for the following:

A closer look at the drawing reveals that the dining and the meeting areas are connected to the outside only by one door. There does not appear to be provided with any direct approach to the outside through any other means of escape. Again the Dining area is split into two parts – this would mean an additional travel for the service staff with the weight that they have to carry from the kitchen or pantry. This is a potential health hazard. The Dining area should have been placed close to the place where the pantry is located and thus is an area of concern.  

In case of an emergency situation like fire or some other undesirable situation when it may force the people to leave the space in a hurry the problem of smooth exit is apparently compromised. The only exit and entry door placed in the front is quite a distance away and hence thus may lead to a stampede. Again the kitchen is a place where naked flames are to be found and may often be the source of the fire is also not provided with any exit facilities in case any such need surfaces accidentally. The kitchen staff will have to wait for the entire hall to be evacuated and emptied before they can find their way out. This is a very grave cause for concern. Whenever any emergency situation arises the people who are present need to be put into safer areas at the earliest i.e. before they are exposed to the hazards of the emergency. When the government means people it means not only the guests but also the people who are working in the area. Especially during an incidence of fire it is necessary to ensure that the minimum damage is done to the lives of the people who are present. Thus more openings straight into the area outside are necessary to be provided especially the kitchen staff (Nationalsecurity, 2016). 

Areas that may not be Legally Compliant

Another category of emergency can be some kind of man-made disaster like some gun man trying to kill people. In such circumstances it is necessary that the occupants get the required help from the police for which one opening is not enough. The security and police personnel should be able to storm inside from various entry points to render effective service. Paucity of openings is a certain disadvantage.

While the importance of the Fire Brigade is never to be underestimated yet the supervisory level of people must be trained up in handling the situation of a fire or any other untoward incident. This is the basic intention of the government that the people of the hotel present on duty are trained to handle the situation which means that they will certainly not replace the fire fighters but then their duty is to ensure that the people are moved to safety and the required steps of cooperating with the fire fighters are initiated. 

In order to ensure that minimum harm is done to their people (their employees as well as their guests) it is necessary that the fire-fighting equipments are strategically placed to mitigate the effect of any fire situation. The fire-fighting equipments should be placed in locations which are in clear view of the people inside. This may make the internal decorations slightly messy but then this is a safety issue and hence the government rule does not permit that to be compromised with. Not only these should be in clear view but the operating instructions have to be clearly provided by the side of each fire extinguisher or any such equipment that may be necessary.

Incidentally, there are two types of fire extinguishers which need to be in easy reach. The first is the water jet with Carbon Dioxide mixture and the second type is the Foam type fire extinguishers which would be used for electrical appliances where the cutting off the supply of Oxygen is of primary importance. Since there is a bar and restaurant with Kitchen there is every possibility that fires are caused either by naked flames or by electrical short circuits. Hence both the foam type as well as water jet with Carbon Dioxide should be made available.

Further the locations of these fire fighting equipments should be near about the centre of the floor so that people trapped inside can use them from inside so as to minimize the damage caused by the fire (Norman, 2012). 

Security Issues in an Emergency Situation

Next is the case of some workman meeting with an accident since most of the activities are manual in nature. In such cases also where an accident victim cannot be given due attention and there is a delay then also this is very seriously viewed by the authorities. Therefore provision is required to be kept for quickly moving out of the premises at a short notice and with minimum dislocation of other activities. Therefore more openings leading outside the building need to be provided for in this plan (Planning, 2015).

Safe Work Australia along with Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) are agencies in Australia who are available in each state or territory who are responsible for enforcing and 9mplementinh the relevant laws, regulations and acts pertaining to health and safety of the people working in any premises.

The fire order procedure states that no organization will introduce any inflammable article into a confined space which may become a potential fire hazard. Again all electrical installations must be ensured to be fully protected against fire hazard (Kwok, 2013). 

In the event of a fire breaking out there must be provisions in the work area to not only get help in fire fighting and rescue easily but the installation must have sufficient facilities for people to move out fast through specially provided outlets and emergency doors all over the area. 

Fire need not always be due to some unavoidable failures of equipments. There may be cases of ignorant handling which may lead to a fire. Thus it is very essential that people are trained to work in a safe manner and the supervisors must have the capability of correcting any person who may be jeopardizing the fire safety rules (Carmichael, 2015).

Employees must be trained at using both types of extinguishers e.g. Foam Type as well as water jet type and they should invariably check periodically the validity dates of these extinguishers. They will also be trained in finding quickly the cause of the fire and use the appropriate fire extinguisher.

A hazard management procedure is required to be evolved and implemented in which each supervisor has to give a certificate every week that all the fire extinguishers are within the validity period.

The following form will help:

The only recommendation which can be made by looking at the plan provided is that they should provide more exits points for use during emergency especially in their Kitchen and Bar where the chances of fire is higher.

Generically speaking the safety audit under the guidance of WHS authorities is the only way all areas are made safe. The training of the people in this regard needs to be done inder their guidance. Besides the training of the people another important aspect is the documentation of the procedure of operation so that all the safety issues are addressed to the full compliance of the existing regulations.

The data available in the case does not illustrate the safety and health issues related to the operation. Their safety is of primary concern if the organization wants to work in Australia.

Conclusion:

It is needless to say that any organization which does not abide by the regulations of WHS is going to pay up dearly for this lapse. The government is very serious and imposes formidable penalties for negligence in this area.

References:

Boxall, A.-m., 2011. What are we doing to ensure the sustainability of the health system? [Online] Available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1112/12rp04 [Accessed 29 October 2016].

Carmichael, J., 2015. Australian Standards for fire protection. [Online] Available at: https://fireextinguishersales.com.au/australianstandards.htm [Accessed 29 October 2016].

Kwok, G., 2013. Keeping on top of fire safety regulations and standards. [Online] Available at: https://www.safetysolutions.net.au/content/fire/article/keeping-on-top-of-fire-safety-regulations-and-standards-695636816 [Accessed 29 October 2016].

Nationalsecurity, 2016. National security agencies. [Online] Available at: https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/WhatAustraliaisdoing/Pages/NationalSecurityAgencies.aspx [Accessed 29 October 2016].

Norman, J., 2012. Report identifies major firefighting issues. [Online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-26/report-identifies-major-firefighting-issues/4393570 [Accessed 29 October 2016].

Planning, 2015. Guidelines for Planning in Bushfire Prone Areas. [Online] Available at: https://www.planning.wa.gov.au/dop_pub_pdf/Bushfire_GuidelinesText.pdf [Accessed 29 October 2016].