Aug 10, 20192 min read

IELTS TOPICS - WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY

The subject of work health and safety is very common in the IELTS test. It often comes up in the General Training listening test, reading and sometimes the writing test. It will also be useful if you decide to include the topic when you're asked about your work place in the speaking test. For this reason, I have dedicated this page to the topic with many links to readings and videos about the topic. Even if you don't get this in your exam, particularly for those of you who live in NSW or Australia, this information will be useful and helpful in your future living in an English speaking country.

Workplace Health and Safety (WHS), also known as Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S), involves the assessment and mitigation of risks that may impact the health, safety or welfare of those in a workplace. This may include the health and safety of customers, employees, visitors, contractors, volunteers and suppliers. There are legal requirements that a business owner must comply with to ensure the workplace meets WHS obligations.

Under Australian WHS legislation businesses are legally obliged to:

provide safe work premises
assess risks and implement appropriate measures for controlling them
ensure safe use and handling of goods and substances
provide and maintain safe machinery and materials
assess workplace layout and provide safe systems of work
provide a suitable working environment and facilities
have insurance and workers’ compensation insurance for your employees.

People working in your business have work health and safety obligations to themselves and their workmates. They must:

comply with instructions given for work health and safety
use any provided personal protective equipment (PPE) and be properly trained in how to use it
not willfully or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided for work health and safety at the workplace
not wilfully place others at risk
not wilfully injure themselves.

source: business.gov.au