FAQ

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Mailing address:
Health & Safety Handbook
Portner Press
PO Box 4150
Knox City Centre VIC 3152

No. You can cancel your subscription at any time.

Yes, all prices quoted are inclusive of GST.

$99 per month if you would like to be billed monthly, or $990 per year if you would like to be billed annually.

Yes, the Health & Safety Handbook is fully tax deductible for your business.

Yes, the government does publish material, but it’s not easy to find and often very difficult to interpret. This is why employers use resources such as lawyers and specialist publications to understand legislation changes and how they are likely to affect them.

The Health & Safety Handbook is a great tool to help you keep on top of your legal obligations. You get all the information you need in a user-friendly, easy-to-access format, at a fraction of the cost of hiring a lawyer. You also receive a free email bulletin each week to draw your attention to legal changes and timely reminders as you need them.

The Health & Safety Handbook is published by Portner Press. Portner Press is a business-to-business publisher that specialises in producing handbooks and other helpful resources for Australian businesses. The Health & Safety Handbook and the Employment Law Practical Handbook are Portner Press’s core products.

At Portner Press, we take complex legal information and turn it into clear, readable language that everybody can understand. We also provide practical tips, case studies, definitions, and legally compliant policies and documents to help simplify the workload of thousands of managers, supervisors and business owners across Australia. They are designed specifically so that information is easy to find, and subscribers also receive regular updates to ensure they are kept up to date with any policy developments or changes in legislation.

The Editor-in-Chief of the Health & Safety Handbook is Michael Selinger. Michael is a partner at Holding Redlich in Sydney. He practises in all areas of workplace relations with a special focus on workplace health and safety. He has extensive litigation experience in employment disputes and defending health and safety prosecutions.

Yes, the information covered in the Health & Safety Handbook is written from a national perspective. Where there are legal differences between jurisdictions, the Health & Safety Handbook lays these out in an easy-to-understand way.

The Health & Safety Handbook is written by our Editor-in-Chief, Michael Selinger, with assistance from a team of editors, writers and contributors.

Michael Selinger is a partner in the Sydney office of Holding Redlich. He practises in all areas of workplace relations with a special focus on occupational health and safety. He has extensive litigation experience in employment disputes and defending health and safety prosecutions. Michael’s expertise includes:

• occupational health and safety, including structuring WHS management systems, agreements, policies and procedures;
• conducting internal workplace investigations;
• dealing with investigations by regulatory agencies, including WorkCover;
• worker’s compensation, personal injury and return to work issues and claims;
• preparing employment contracts; and
• managing employment issues with transfer of business and company restructuring.

Michael is a regular presenter of seminars and training on workplace issues.

Yes. You have a strict legal obligation to provide your workers with appropriate PPE that is safe and fit for purpose. Failing to do so is a serious offence.

You must also ensure that your workers are trained to use their PPE correctly, and know how to identify and report any faults.

The Personal Protective Equipment chapter in the Health & Safety Handbook explains how to meet your health and safety obligations in relation to PPE, and outlines how PPE addresses hazards in the workplace and when workers should use it to reduce their exposure to these risks.

This chapter also includes a legally compliant PPE policy template.

Part of your legal duty as an employer is to maintain a safe working environment. To help you do this, you must implement a risk management system in your workplace.

In the Risk Assessment chapter of the Health & Safety Handbook, we show you how to assess the level of risk associated with hazards you have identified in your workplace and, based on that assessment, how to determine urgency when implementing risk controls.

The chapter also includes the following legally compliant templates:

• Chemical Hazard Risk Assessment Form
• Manual Handling Risk Assessment
• Checklist for Managing Risks in Customer Service
• Risk Register

Exposure to airborne asbestos fibres is the most common cause of mesothelioma, a rare type of cancer that can develop decades after the exposure.

Although mining and manufacturing of asbestos has been banned for many years, there is a still a legacy of risk to workers and others who may be exposed to asbestos-containing materials if those materials are not properly maintained or removed carefully.

The Asbestos chapter in the Health & Safety Handbook explains how to manage your health and safety obligations in relation to asbestos when removing it or when it is found to exist in your worksite.

Lone workers face greater health and safety risks, no matter what their job is.

As an employer, you must take several measures to ensure the health and safety of workers who work alone is adequately protected.

In the Working Alone chapter in the Health & Safety Handbook, we show you how to reduce the health and safety risks to workers who work alone, detailing what you must do to comply with your health and safety obligations.

This chapter also includes a legally compliant working alone policy template as well as a working alone risk assessment checklist.

Workers who work outdoors face a great number of risks including exposure to solar UV radiation and unsafe hot and cold weather.

In the Emergency Management, Radiation at Work and Working Environment chapters in the Health & Safety Handbook, we explain all of the steps you need to take to protect workers who work outdoors and meet your legal obligations.

While smoking is not specifically mentioned in health and safety legislation, smoking is a health and safety risk that must be minimised as part of your general obligation to provide a safe workplace.

In the Smoking chapter of the Health & Safety Handbook, we outline the risks associated with smoking, and how to manage them to comply with your health and safety duties.

This chapter also includes a smoke-free work environment policy template.

Your specific obligations to provide first aid depend on the state or territory in which your organisation operates.

In the First Aid chapter of the Health & Safety Handbook, we explain what first aid obligations apply to you, including the requirement to provide first aid kits and trained first aiders who are able to respond to a medical emergency.

The chapter also includes a first aid risk assessment template.

The Contractors chapter in the Health & Safety Handbook details all of your health and safety obligations in relation to contractors and every step you must take to minimise your legal liability.

The chapter includes a contractor management checklist template as well as a post-contract evaluation template.

In the Incident Reporting and Investigation chapter you’ll not only find a legally compliant incident report form template, but also detailed professional guidance on when you must report and investigate a workplace incident, and how to carry out an investigation in your workplace.

Discrimination must be treated the same as any other health and safety risk. This means you must conduct a risk assessment and put risk control measures in place to reduce the risk of discrimination occurring.

The Discrimination chapter explains the laws governing discrimination in the workplace and exactly what you must do to comply with them.

To comply with your work health and safety obligations, you should have a health and wellbeing program in place to assist your workers with the following health and welfare issues:

mental health;

energy levels;

weight management;

blood pressure;

sleeping patterns;

nutrition; and

alcohol consumption.

In the Health and Wellbeing Programs chapter we show you how to plan, design, implement and evaluate strategies and activities to improve your workers’ health and wellbeing.

The chapter also includes an employee health and wellbeing policy for you to edit and use.

Hazard identification is the first step of the risk management process which we explain in the Hazard Identification chapter. Chapter R3 details the second step, risk assessment, showing you how to assess the level of risk associated with hazards you have identified and, based on that assessment, how to determine urgency when implementing risk controls.

Both chapters come with legally compliant forms and templates for you to use to meet your health and safety obligations.

A number of policy and procedure templates to get you started can be found in the Health and Safety Policies and Procedures chapter.

Importantly, this chapter explains what health and safety policies and procedures you should have in your workplace, and how to develop and implement them effectively.

The Health & Safety Helpdesk is designed to answer general workplace health and safety queries and clarify areas of law. We are unable to provide specific legal advice, such as reviewing policies or giving individualised detailed advice.

If you require individual legal advice beyond the scope of the Health & Safety Helpdesk service, we can put you in touch with one of our lawyers.

To keep the subscription cost low, the Health & Safety Helpdesk service is only available over email.

We aim to answer all queries submitted to the Health & Safety Helpdesk within 72 hours.

There is no limit to the number of questions that subscribers to the Health & Safety Handbook can submit to our Health & Safety Helpdesk, so you can receive assistance as frequently as you need!

The Health & Safety Helpdesk team is comprised of professional lawyers who are workplace health and safety law experts.

Included in your Health & Safety Handbook subscription, the Health & Safety Helpdesk allows you to ask our experts any general workplace health and safety law queries to which you can’t find an answer in your Handbook. Whether your query is about recent legislative changes, or the steps you need to take to protect yourself, our team of experts is ready to answer your questions.

Simply log in to your account and head to the Our Experts section to submit your query.