Teacher Lesson Plan 5: safe@work General Module

Lesson Objective This lesson plan reviews the key points presented in the safe@work
General Module covering:

 Health and Safety Laws

 Duties of Employers
 Duties of Employees
 Dealing with Emergencies

Background Notes For The Occupational Health and Safety Act (2004) covers all workplaces in
Teachers Victoria – these may be offices, hospitals, schools, factories, construction
sites, farms, forests, boats, aircraft or vehicles, and any other place where
employees or self employed persons work. Separate health and safety laws
cover the mining and petroleum industries and Commonwealth agencies
(such as Australia Post, or the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service).

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) involves everyone in the workplace

– employers, employees, contractors, even customers and clients visiting the
worksite. The State and Federal laws regulating OHS aim to prevent
accidents at work and protect the health, welfare and safety of all in the
workplace. In a school environment this includes students, teaching staff,
maintenance and administration staff, as well as guests and parents while
they are visiting at the school.

WorkSafe Victoria has the authority to visit worksites and conduct spot
checks to ensure OHS laws are being complied with. There is also an Act
covering Workers’ Compensation in Victoria. The OHS Act seeks to
prevent accidents and injuries at work, and the WorkCover legislation seeks
to provide for people who have suffered workplace related illness or injury.

Workers or even visitors to a workplace who are injured due to negligence

have a right to sue for damages under Common (Civil) law. Accidents and
injuries have serious effects on people’s lives. They also add significant
costs to the running of a business. This affects the community and
eventually impacts on the national economy. The Federal and State
governments of Australia take OHS Laws very seriously, and any company
or individual found to be in breach of these laws, faces large fines and can
even be sent to jail if they have been found to be negligent.

Delivery Mode Classroom Activities

Paper based Online General Module Sample Test 1

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Health and Safety Laws
Duties of Employers
Duties of Employees
Dealing with Emergencies
 Teacher Lesson Plan 5: safe@work General Module

 Time Allocation 60 minutes

Terminology Checklist Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) – all matters related to workplace
health and safety (e.g. hazards, risks, communication issues).

Regulations – laws that support the OHS Act. Regulations are usually
hazard-specific – that is, they make detailed requirements of employers to
manage specific hazards such as Noise or Manual Handling.

Review Activity What are Hazards and how can we identify them at work?
10 mins
Ask these questions:
This activity is aimed at
reviewing the hazards addressed What is a hazard?
by Lessons 2, 3 and 4 and the
Homework Tasks  A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause injury or illness.

Can you name at least four workplace hazards?

 Common workplace hazards include: manual handling, plant
(machinery and equipment), electricity, hazardous substances, noise,
workplace harassment.

How can workplace hazards be controlled?

 Hazards must first be identified. Then the risks must be assessed in
order to prioritise them, so the most potentially dangerous hazards
can be dealt with first. The hierarchy of risk control is used to put
possible actions to control risks into an order of priority, from ‘most
effective’ to ‘least effective’:

Elimination: remove the hazard altogether.

Substitution: replace the hazard with something less dangerous
(e.g. using less hazardous chemicals that will do a cleaning job just
as well).
Engineering: make physical changes to safeguard the hazard (e.g.
fitting guards to dangerous machines).
Use administrative controls: provide instruction and training,
‘rotate’ jobs, establish safe working procedures.
Use personal protective equipment (PPE): such as safety boots,
glasses, hearing protection.

These risk controls will often be used in combination, e.g.

engineering controls will rarely be enough without the use of
administrative controls such as training, and perhaps PPE as well.

Activity 1 Understanding OHS Laws

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Health and Safety Laws
Duties of Employers
Duties of Employees
Dealing with Emergencies
 Teacher Lesson Plan 5: safe@work General Module

35 mins

Group Discussion and Short Answer Questions

This information can be given as notes or as short answer responses.

Students will need to refer to the safe@work General Module to research
the responses. The Key Points will assist in finding correct answers.

1. Explain why we need legislation for health and safety in

workplaces?

 The legislation is designed to protect the health and safety of

workers, whether they are full-time, part-time, casual or temporary.

2. Briefly explain the content of each of the main parts of OHS law
in Victoria:

OHS Act 2004

 The OHS Act sets out the general requirements for securing
health and safety in the workplace and makes it clear that everyone
at work has a duty of care.

OHS Regulations

 Regulations make requirements to manage specific hazards and

OHS issues in workplaces –they are laws, and employers who do
not comply with them may be prosecuted.

Approved Codes of Practice and Australian Standards

 Codes and Standards provide guidance to help workplaces comply

with Regulations – these are designed to provide more detailed
information and assistance. They are not laws, but they can be used
to provide evidence that OHS standards have not been met.

3. List the main responsibilities an employer has for workplace

health and safety.

An employer must:
 Provide and maintain a safe work environment.
 Provide and maintain plant, equipment and substances in a safe
condition.
 Consult with workers and their representatives.

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Health and Safety Laws
Duties of Employers
Duties of Employees
Dealing with Emergencies
 Teacher Lesson Plan 5: safe@work General Module

 Provide adequate facilities such as toilets and meal areas.

 Provide information, instruction, supervision and training.
 Notify incidents, accidents and dangerous occurrences to
WorkSafe Victoria.

4. List the main responsibilities an employee has for workplace

health and safety.

An employee must:
 Follow reasonable instructions for health and safety.
 Work safely and wear protective equipment as required.
 Not put themselves, their co-workers or any other person at risk.
 Ensure they are not affected by drugs or alcohol.

5. Briefly outline the main functions of Health and Safety

Representatives (HSRs) and Committees in ensuring a healthy
and safe workplace.

 Elected HSRs are the link between employee and employers,

advising employees about health and safety concerns and
working with employers to fix problems and maintain
workplace safety.
 HSRs have legal powers to write Provisional Improvement
Notices if an OHS problem cannot be resolved. This requires
the employer to take action within seven days.
 HSRs can assist new and young workers become familiar with
the way OHS is managed in their workplace. They can ensure
that new workers receive a proper OHS induction.
 Health and Safety Committees can develop strategies and
programs to manage OHS, and help employers and employees
to work as teams to make the workplace safe for everybody.

6. What are the important arrangements employers must have in

place to deal with emergencies?

 First aid facilities and trained first aiders.

 Fire wardens.
 An emergency plan, emergency evacuation procedures and
training for all workers to ensure they know the emergency
arrangements – this includes evacuation drills.
 Alarm signals and fire extinguishers.
Activity 2 Sample Test 1 – General Module
15 mins
After completing the set activities and the previous four lessons, students
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Health and Safety Laws
Duties of Employers
Duties of Employees
Dealing with Emergencies
 Teacher Lesson Plan 5: safe@work General Module

Sample Tests and Answers should be ready to attempt a trial General Module Test.
are included with this lesson
plan.
a. Distribute individual copies of Sample Test 1. Ask students to
complete.
b. ESL students may wish to complete this sample test with a partner.
c. Correct the test in class. Award a percentage grade out of 100%. The
Test requires students to achieve a 75% result or better to receive the
safe@work Award of Attainment.
d. If time permits and there is access to the Internet in the classroom,
students may wish to try the Online Test located at the safe@work
website.

Homework Task Task

 Distribute individual copies of the Activity Sheet: Hazardous

Teachers may choose to Substances and Dangerous Goods. Students read the Information
assign this activity as an Sheet Case Study and complete the Worksheet activity on the Case
assessment task to be
completed as part of reporting
Study.
procedures for this unit.  ESL and Low Literacy students: Complete the Working Safely
Crossword Worksheet and Working Safely Match Sentence
beginnings and ends.

Note: Activity Sheets can be downloaded from the DE&T safe@work

website under the Resources on the Menu bar.

Resources needed for  Hard copies of the safe@work General Module for all students
Lesson Delivery
in class – this can be downloaded from the DE&T safe@work
website.
 Sample Test 1 of the General Module included with this lesson.
 Answer Sheet for Sample Test 1 of the General Module included
with this lesson.
 Sufficient copies of Homework task Sheets – available from the
DE&T safe@work website under Resources on the Menu bar.

VELS APPLICATION Strand Domain Dimension

LEVEL 6 Physical, Personal Health and Physical  Health knowledge

and Social Learning Education and promotion

Interpersonal  Building social

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Health and Safety Laws
Duties of Employers
Duties of Employees
Dealing with Emergencies
 Teacher Lesson Plan 5: safe@work General Module

Note: The Learning Focus and Standard development relationships

for this lesson are available on the VELS  Working in teams
Application safe@work Lesson Plan
Grid.
Personal Learning  The individual
learner

 Managing personal
Learning

Civics and Citizenship  Civic knowledge &

understanding

Discipline- based The Humanities -  Knowledge&

Learning Economics understanding

 Reasoning and
interpretation

Interdisciplinary Communication  Listening, viewing

Learning and responding
 Presenting

Thinking  Reasoning processing

and inquiry

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Health and Safety Laws
Duties of Employers
Duties of Employees
Dealing with Emergencies
 Teacher Lesson Plan 5: safe@work General Module

safe@work
General Module
Sample Test 1

1. Common types of hazards at work include:

a) electrical hazards
b) slips and trips
c) excessive noise
d) all of the above

2. The best way to fix a hazard is to:

a) substitute something less dangerous
b) remove (eliminate) the hazard
c) add safeguards
d) use personal protective equipment

3. Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) provide essential information about:

a) personal protective equipment
b) hazardous substances
c) safe lifting techniques for heavy objects
d) equipment used at work

4. Alterations/repairs to existing electrical installations can only legally be carried out by:
a) an experienced unsupervised electrical apprentice
b) a person with many years of electrical experience
c) a licensed electrical worker
d) all of the above

5. The second ThinkSafe step is

a) Change the risk
b) Assess the hazard
c) Assess the risk
d) Make the changes

6. Assessing the risk involves:

a) working out how likely it is a hazard will harm someone
b) working out how difficult it will be to eliminate a hazard
c) working out how likely it is that a hazard will harm someone and how badly they could be
hurt
d) keeping an eye out for things that might cause injury or harm

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Health and Safety Laws
Duties of Employers
Duties of Employees
Dealing with Emergencies
 Teacher Lesson Plan 5: safe@work General Module

safe@work
General Module
Sample Test 1
Answers

Question 1
Answer: D all of the above

Question 2
Answer: B remove (eliminate) the hazard

Question 3
Answer: B hazardous substances

Question 4
Answer: C a licensed electrical worker

Question 5
Answer: C assess the risk

Question 6
Answer: C working out how likely it is that a hazard will harm someone and how
badly they could be hurt.

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Health and Safety Laws
Duties of Employers
Duties of Employees
Dealing with Emergencies