…that Work Health & Safety (WHS) or Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) in Australia started in a very simple format and really began in 1956 on a W.A. work site, when workers were hoisting buckets of hot bitumen, and one spilled onto a worker below?
The employee went on to sue the company and the case went to the High Court (Established in Hamilton v Nuroof (WA) Pty Ltd [1956] 96 CLR 18 at 25), where the judge proclaimed the employer needs “… to take reasonable care to avoid exposing the employee to unnecessary risk of injury.”
It evolved to a similar format still used today in the release of the “Roben’s Report” in 1972, which highlighted the area of consultation being of great importance, i.e. collaboration of employers with employees for identification of risk, and the management of hazards in their own particular workplaces.
And thus began Australia’s legislative part in striving for safe workplaces and protecting the people who enter them.
Written by Gabrielle Condon – WHS Consultant for CC Safety (ccsafety.com.au)
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