Thursday, September 6, 2012

Occupational Safety and Health Code Regarding the Sat Phone

By John Whitley


According to the Occupational and Safety code in Australia, all employers are needed by the law to provide effective communication channels to their workers if they work under conditions that don't permit them to have regular mobile phone conversation. For most staff, this mainly means the employment of satellite phones though the law does not stipulate that the sat phone as the only possible way they can substitute regular phone chats.

This code is specially intended to apply to employees under the OHS Act and this excludes folks that are employed by the federal government, who work in farms or ranches or those that are self employed. This is mainly because for self employed folks, they'll make sure that they have efficient communication means because they should communicate with their providers. The law was therefore made to ensure that staff don't go for days without having a means to communicate with other folks.

The law was also implemented to ensure that if an employer has hired security guards to supply protecting services to either property or folk, they will be well rigged to make a response to emergency calls or threats without much of a delay. This not is only sensible but is presently a duty before any employer hires a security guard.

Most employers like employing a sat phone because it is more reliable in the event of an emergency and communication will not be deterred by terrestrial connections that are principally utilized for mobile phones. In addition, these connections are known to fail on some occasions and this should be a great threat when a security guard can't respond to the emergency just because they cannot communicate or call for back up. The occupational safety and health code principally focuses on an employees safety and wellbeing but also doubles up as an additional security measure for the employer.

According to the code, employers are required to have the effective communication system especially when a worker is working alone. The law will allow the employer to conduct a hazard assessment in order to establish the appropriate communication system. This assessment is only conducted once and it'll only change if the work conditions also change. Therefore , if the assessment shows that using a sat phone is the most acceptable communication path, then this can stay the same unless a rather more suitable system comes up with time.

The law also does not confirm that an employer is obliged to provide satellite phones or any other means of communication to their staff if they make regular call ins at pre-arranged intervals to ensure the safety of their workers. The call in intervals will be based on the hazard assessment and will thus be different for individual work eventualities. This might be at the beginning and end of a shift or every hour or two if the work scenario carries more dangers. This law works best in remote work places where there's a higher chance of injury and small means of communication meaning that workers may be unable to call in for help in case of an emergency.




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