Workplace safety equipment in Australia

Safety at work is vital for everyone concerned. A happy, productive work environment requires adequate safety equipment. It’s also important to ensure your business complies with all the relevant legislation - to do this it may be necessary to invest in extra safety products.

It’s mandatory

There are work safety laws in all Australian states and territories, requiring businesses to eliminate, or reduce to as low as reasonably practicable, injuries to people affected by business activities. 

“This includes staff, customers, visitors and especially yourself,” says Jenny Goodwin of Goodwin Solutions. “How will you continue to grow your business if you are injured?”

Look around you

To ensure a safe work environment, business owners need to look carefully at their situation and business activities to identify where the significant hazards are in their particular industry, how likely these are to cause severe injury and how best to eliminate or control these safety risks.

Even a ‘standard’ office contains risks 

There’s a perception that not much can happen to business owners and their staff in a normal office environment. This is far from the truth - there are a number of chronic problems that can develop from working a so-called ‘desk job’.

Common problems, easy solutions

“A common hazard in office environments occurs when people try to use their telephone ‘hands free’ while looking up information stored in their computer or on the web, or writing notes of their conversation,” says Jenny. “This can lead to debilitating neck and shoulder pain that can become permanent if the habit continues.”

The solution? “A light-weight headset plugged into the telephone will eliminate the risk, enabling staff to balance their head comfortably and naturally over their spine while being able to freely use their hands as needed,” Jenny says.

Choose and use your furniture wisely 

Often good ergonomic furniture is set up for people doing computer-based work but not adjusted to fit the particular proportions of each person.

In the long term this will cause pain in the back and shoulder or wrist damage to people who are either taller or shorter than average, when they twist to try to conform to chairs, desks and monitors that have been set at the wrong height for them.

With good advice from a registered safety professional you can control your occupational hazards at a very modest cost, particularly when compared with the potential increases in workers compensation premiums if a serious body-stressing claim is made.