Compliance Analysis of Health and Social Care in Australia - Case Study Example

Health and social care-Compliance report Name University Affiliation Introduction The report will identify areas in which this chain store complies with the regulations that involve health and social care as a policy of safety measure of the workers in Australia. It will further discuss the non-compliance areas that need some rectification and the strategies that can be adapted to ensure that the non-compliance areas have now comply with the regulations. K-mart chain store as mentioned is an Australian business entity that deals in a variety of merchandise. Its stores stocks goods such as electronics, music, movies, household goods, sporting goods, clothing, office materials, jewelry, foodstuffs, furniture and many more. K-mart is a discount chain free standing and often located along the streets, therefore it has numerous customers due to a variety of merchandise it stocks that it offers at discounts (Kenyon, 2012). Like other business entities in Australia, it is expected to observe the workers safety since it is an Australian national policy. The tasks in these stores involves; pulling, pushing, lifting, carrying etc. Such kinds of tasks often strain the workers. Areas of non-compliance Although most of the safety rules and regulations in these stores are observed, some areas are not complied with according to the requirements of the safety measures standards. One of the area non-compliance is how this firm ensures the safety of manual workers. Some of the examples in this area include, first, workers are given heavy loads to lift them to the higher counters, and even take them to the upper floors (K-mart.com). Some of these loads are bulky and even the contents are harmful in case there are leakage. Harmful chemical may leak during the process of transferring or lifting them from the lower grounds. Still on the same, workers have not been provided with good handling equipments to hold the heavy loads in position when lifting them. The second example under this area is that heavy and bulky goods are placed up on the counters; this poses a risk to the workers. Goods such as television sets, Radios, microwaves, household appliances, generators, car batteries, sprayers etc in most cases have been placed at higher heights (K-mart.com). This can easily cause accidents and big losses whenever there is a displacement. Another area of concern is that the gas cylinders are stocked inside the stores, this is very risky because if there is any flammable gas leakage, it can cause fire outbreak. Thirdly, there are no conveyer belts and automatic lifts to carry heavy goods in K-mart chain stores. Conveyor belts assists in transferring goods from one point another within the stores. The automatic lifts help in carrying heavy and bulky goods onto the upper floors (Kenyon, 2012). Thus, employees are the ones who carry heavy loads manually to various points. The workers often carry the luggage over stairs, actually, this has led to many accidents and some workers have had muscle fatigue. However, we have trolling equipments, but they are few and can only be used in transferring goods on horizontal distances but not vertical distances. The next example in this area is that the most of the workers in these stores have no sits; they are always moving goods or standing as they arrange the goods on the shelves. They spent more than eight hours per day while standing, this obviously make them to strain so much (Kenyon, 2012). There are no resting benches where the workers or even the customers can take their rest inside the stores. Moreover, the customers in these stores are many, and the employee customer ratio seems not in balance (K-mart.com). There are few workers serving many customers. One employee, end up serving more than a thousand customers per day. Indeed this is quite a lot of work given the fact that they are supposed to work on daily basis. The last example in this area of employee safety non-compliance in Kmart is the security of the workers and the entire buildings. The security guards have been hired to guard the buildings and the stock (K-mart.com). However, they are few in numbers and the equipments they use to monitor the securities of the stores are not reliable. The security guards stay only in the entrance of these stores but they do not patrol inside the stores to ensure that there is god security of the property. In addition to the security issue, the modern CCTV cameras have not been installed in every part of these stores (Kenyon, 2012). They have only been installed in offices and the storerooms but not in the entire rooms and over the staircases. It is important for modern cameras to be installed in every part of the stores to ensure maximum security for the safety of both the workers and the customers. The proactive strategies to achieve legal compliance The management of the K-mart chain stores ought to take some proactive strategies that are aimed at achieving legal compliance in areas that are not in line with legal requirements. The first step in improving this situation is the formation of cross functional teams. Cross functional teams are formed with defined purposes and period to address specific problems that can not be fixed by the traditional monitoring of the operation (Cop, 2011). The teams may consists of te officers, researchers and some employee representatives. The responsibility of these teams is undertaking the research and analysis and consulting with the appropriate bodies (Dancan, Cahill, & Heighway, 2006). They are responsible for coming up with concrete approaches that are aimed at rectifying a specific problem that may be risking the safety of the employees in these stores. This aids in improving the service of the workers and to the customers. The second step is the development of hierarchy of control that will aim to stop this exploitation. The purpose of this strategy is to establish a risk based process that guides the decision makers when setting the priorities for the activities in these chains stores (Cop, 2011). Once the hierarchy of control has been developed, data will be collected and analyzed, the non-compliance areas would be identified. The information of noncompliance areas can be got from the employees of these firms since they know very well the strenuous areas that require some rectification (Jeynes, 2012). The strenuous areas such as transportation of heavy luggage to various points and lifting of heavy goods to the upper floors would be addressed. The first proactive strategy that would be included in the hierarchy of control measures is the establishment and use of conveyor belts. Conveyor belts are belts arranged in a manner that heavy goods can be put on them to be transported to various points within the organization. They are run by the machines and are automatic. Besides transporting heavy commodities, these belts are more convenient and safe. Employees are just trained on how to operate them and how to put commodities on them when they are running. Another advantage of these belts is that they save time as compared to the time that would have been taken by the workers carrying the items to the required sections. The second proactive strategy under this area of noncompliance is the adoption and use of trolleys and lifters. These equipments are used to pull the heavy commodities and other machines to various sections of the organization. K-mart is a chain store; therefore, such heavy commodities in boxes are common. Lifters assist in uplifting these bulk goods to upper floors or on counter shelves for display. Items such as TV sets, refrigerators, microwaves, kitchenwares etc need to be handle with care, therefore lifting these commodities by the use of the lifters would be safer other than using manual workers who can easily cause accidents leading to big losses. Performance indicators The first performance indicator is conducting the follow-up of the compliance activities. The management has the duty of making follow-up activities in areas that have to be observed by the workers (Jeynes, 2012). For examples, workers are provided with safety equipments to use while they are at work but most of them tend to assume these equipments they just attend to the duties without using these safety tools and equipments (Cop, 2011). Workers who carry loads should compelled to put on helmets, those ones hat do cleaning jobs have to put on cloves and gumboots to avoid being in conduct with contaminated water and other wastes. Therefore, follow up activities ensures that workers adhere to safety rules and regulations that are set in the policy. Another performance indicator is the enforcement strategy. This is where by the licensed firms aim to operate within the law (Jeynes, 2012). They work hard to ensure that they have maintained the appropriate safety standards that are required of them to comply with the law. This strategy also ensures that any non-compliant behavior ceases within the stores. There should be strong enforcement actions that are directed towards punishing the offenders and those people who intentionally disregard to observe the safety rules within the stores (Ridle &Channing, 2003). Safety enforcement strategy in K-mart will ensure to the adherence to the laid rules that ought to be followed by both the employees and the management. Some the things can be used to ascertain the effectiveness of the proactive strategies are; the drop in the rates of accidents within the stores. When the records show that the rates of the accidents within the working environment have dropped then the strategies would be being implemented in the correct manner (Dancan, Cahill, & Heighway, 2006). Secondly, the increased need of the safety materials such as gumboots, overalls, helmets gloves would be an indicator to show that the workers are using safety materials hence the proactive strategies are effective. Increase in the profits can also be an indicator to show that the strategies are effective. Profit increase may mean efficiency of the workers and for the workers to be efficient, they have to be in a safe working environment that is motivating Conclusion The purpose of this report was to investigate the safety in K-mart chain stores that operates business in Australia. The first task, the report showed areas where these chain stores comply with the safety rules and regulations as stipulated in the Australian safety policy. The report again showed the areas where these stores are non-compliant with the laws as provided in the safety policy. Furthermore, some strategies to ensure compliance with the safety laws were discussed. Some of the identified proactive strategies are the establishment of conveyor belts, lifters and trolleys to assist in transporting heavy and bulky commodities to various sections of the firm. Some of the performance indicators identified are enforcement of the law that concern the safety measures and conducting compliance follow-up activities. Every business organization has some safety rules that ought to be observed or adhered to by both the management and the workers. The management should ensure the safe working environment for their employees. References Cop. (2011). “Hazardous manual task code of practice: Safe work in Australia”. 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