Ensuring a Safe Work Experience
Many organisations have work experience placements that allow students to get a feel for different workplaces --- enabling them to better make educated decisions on future occupations. What you may not be aware of, is that those host employers are required to provide the same occupational health and safety (OH&S) conditions to these students as they do to other employees.
A recent decision in South Australia found a fishing company guilty for failing to provide the information, instruction, training and supervision reasonably required to ensure a work experience student was safe from injury or risks to his health. The fishing company engaged a 16-year-old student for a period of one week as required by his school's work experience curriculum. On his second day on the job the student injured his fingers when removing a rope from the stern of the boat. Although his injuries were fairly minor, there was a real risk of more serious injuries such as amputation of fingers or permanent nerve damage.
The company failed to provide the student with a full induction process prior to and upon boarding the boat (as they would do for new employees). No training was given to the student in relation to untying the boat and no demonstration was given of the safety features of the boat. Even though the company had an excellent safety record, with OH&S policies and procedures in place, it failed to implement these policies with respect to the student. The company's line was that the student was merely directed to "stand back and observe"; the Court, however, recognised that the purpose of work experience is "to involve the student in participating in the daily routines of the industry" and therefore it was required to provide adequate instruction, information, training and supervision.
This case demonstrates that an employer's OH&S obligations extend not only to employees but also to others in the workforce, including "non-traditional" working relationships such as work experience students. As these workers are generally young and, by definition, inexperienced, an employer must ensure its OH&S obligations are properly implemented and students in the workplace are monitored and supervised at all times.
Markos v Australian Fishing Enterprises Pty Ltd [2008] SAIRC 9