Workplace health and safety not optional extra - Worksafe
Industry should regard workplace health and safety as an integral part of management, rather than an optional extra, Worksafe Australia's chief executive has stressed. Speaking in Brisbane today, Dr Ted Emmett, said: "Occupational health and safety is not a derivative, an add-on, of the process of producing goods and services. "Nor is it a social good that industry gives back to the community as some sort of philanthropic gesture. "Rather, OHS outcomes, good and bad, are a direct and indivisible consequence of human involvement in producing goods and services. "In essence, health and safety is a joint product. "Therefore, it is essential that at every level, an organisation is aware of OHS risks, and has processes in place to manage them. The risks are present whether acknowledged or not." Dr Emmett was speaking at a workplace health and safety best practice forum organised by the Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Council. His topic was Australian initiatives in integrating management systems and risk management approaches. He said that OHS risk management strategies needed to be integrated at every level of organisational and process management. This would ensure that injuries, diseases and other losses were reduced or eliminated ( and that their impact was mitigated by the timely rehabilitation of injured or sick workers. Dr Emmett added that clear economic and social reasons should motivate employers to strive towards safer and healthier workplaces.
20 September 1995
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