Duty of care - a duty towards others to protect them from harm from your acts or
omissions that is reasonably foreseeable.
Mandatory Duty - non-negotiable duty imposed by the organisation
Absolute Duty- non-negotiable duty imposed by legislation through the terms of shall or must
Practicable Duty- duty to comply that is limited by what is achievable when considering current knowledge
irrespective of time, effort or cost
Reasonably Practicable- cost/ benefit analysis or risk benfit trade off. Considering the time, effort and cost to implement
measures to reduce risk.
Prescribed Disease- specified ill-health contracted as a result of exposure to work related hazards
Chronic- effect due to multiple exposures to small quanties over a long period of time
Acute- Immediate effect due to single exposure over a short period of more pronouced substances
Unsafe Condition - any hazard not
involving the acts of an individual
Unsafe Act- Hazards involving the actions of people
Risk- the likelihood of harm occuring from a hazard
Risk Rating- The degree of risk
Risk
Management -
identify hazard
and manage
the risk by
elimination or
reduction
Negligence- failure to exercise duty of care
considered reasonable
Moral, Leagl and Financial Reasons for H&S
Key Words:
Moral - accidents resulting in injuries cause pain and
suffering for those affected
Legal - it is a legal requirment to
safeguard H&S of workers and others
that are affected by your activities.
Reasons for preventing accidents:
Poor business conduct
Damage reputation
Long term future of organisation
Direct Costs - measurable costs arising from acciddent. e.g. insurance costs, claim from court, fines,
loss of production, damage to equipment or products
Claims from civil court or criminal, sick pay, repairs or replacement of damaged equipment or goods.
Indirect Costs- these may arise as a consequence of an accident. e.g. lost time of
employees, lost time of management, lost orders, corporate image damaged
Indirect Costs- largly unknown. Loss of production, downtime machinery, difficulities in recruitment, increased overheads