Occupation Health and Safety Report
Communication of the outcomes of a risk assessment of a task that involves hazardous manual tasks (also referred to as manual handling).
In this assessment you will take the role of a person who has been asked to conduct a risk assessment in an organisation.
Regarding the selection of task, you can choose whatever task is convenient for you, provided it involves manual handling. Example of task can be lifting heavy loads or using hazardous chemical. Also, you can assume the name of the company.
- In response to your organisation’s requirement to reduce the incidence of injuries that result from conducting manual tasks, and the organisation’s recognition of poor performance in the management of related manual tasks, the Senior Management Team has asked you to conduct a risk assessment on a task that involves manual tasks.
- The task is one which has the potential to cause harm.
- Your role is to assess the potential for harm and suggest controls to prevent harm related to the manual task, which will reduce the risk of injury to an acceptable level.
- Your risk assessment should identify a manual task in a workplace or elsewhere which has the potential to cause harm.
- Once identified you will observe the task, conduct a risk assessment using a recognised process and collect relevant information from the ‘workers’ involved, and other sources.
- Your observations, the outcome of each step in the risk assessment process, recommendations and implementation process are to be presented in a report to communicate your project to Senior Management.
- Your report should include the outcomes of research to support your recommendations and implementation plan.
In addition to the report you may include other forms of communication, for example in an appendix.
The following resources may be of use:
Worksafe WA – Code of Practice Manual Tasks 2010: https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/atoms/files/manual_task.pdf
Safe Work Australia – Model Code of Practice: Hazardous manual tasks (2018)
https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/doc/model-code-practice-hazardous-manual- tasks
Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety – Guidance about hazardous manual tasks:
http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/Safety/Guidance-about-hazardous-manual-6622.aspx