Fact Sheet:  Consultation

Consult with your employees.  Not only a good idea, it’s the law!

In September 2001 the NSW Government introduced a new Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulation.  The new laws establish new obligations on employers to ensure that the health, safety and welfare of workers and others who come onto a workplace are suitably protected. 

A key element of the new legislation is the duty on the employer to consult with their employees.  Interestingly, consultation takes on a broader meaning than sitting around the table and telling the employees about new safety provisions.  “After the event” discussions are not only counterproductive in terms of safe work outcomes they are not acceptable under the new legislation.  Employees must be engaged about these matters before they happen.  

An employer must be able to demonstrate that employees have been given the opportunity to express their views about health safety and welfare issues and that these views are valued and taken into account.  Moreover, an employer must establish the mechanism through which effective consultation can occur.  Indeed forward looking employers will realise the close connection between the risk management requirements of the OHS Regulation and the consultation provisions as a vehicle for delivering improved productivity along with compliance with the legislation.  Risk management and consultation can be a marriage born in heaven or the partnership from hell.  The challenge is to make it work for you and not against you.  

There is little doubt that the consultation provisions have the potential to become the new industrial issue of the moment.  Employers who fail to embrace the new provisions and/or who do not understand them will be industrially and legally exposed.  Equally, those employers who recognise the value of constructive involvement of employees will be afforded a powerful protection against such exposure.  Engaging employees on working arrangements such as working hours and shift work for example and difficult issues like bullying and violence at work can deliver employee ownership of the issues and helpful solutions for the employer. 

Clearly the mechanisms for consultation are most important.  Committees or OHS Representatives?  Perhaps both?  Alternatively what are the benefits of considering the “other agreed arrangements”?  Employers need to examine the requirements of the legislation carefully and invest in front end strategies which offer enduring solutions.  Applied correctly, the consultation requirements of OHS legislation in NSW will not only satisfy the legal standard they can be an extremely powerful business tool.  Thinking employers can turn a legal requirement into a good idea.