I work in a food factory there's only 2 employees on clean up for the last 2 hours of the shift, at separate ends of the factory. Is this legal since each of us have to clean and dismantle large heavy and awkward objects by ourselves?
It sounds like your work environment is quite isolated. There is no specific legal prohibition in the OHS Act on working alone, but the general legal duties of employers under the Act still apply. "An employer shall provide and maintain so far as is reasonably practicable for employees a working environment that is safe and without risks to health." [Section 21(1)]
Establishing safe working conditions for lone workers is no different from organising the safety of other employees. Employers should identify the hazards of the work, assess the risks involved, and implement changes to the workplace and safe working arrangements to ensure the risks are either eliminated or adequately controlled.
When it is not possible to devise arrangements for the work to be done safely by one-person, alternative arrangements providing help or back-up have to be devised.
Read more on our Working alone – is it legal, is it safe? webpage.
The ‘cleaning and dismantling of heavy objects’:
What you’re describing sounds dangerous. Based on what you’ve told us, it seems inevitable that sooner or later either you, or one of your workmates, will incur an injury.
The first thing we’d like to say is musculoskeletal injuries can be life-altering, requiring ongoing pain management for injuries that never fully heal, restricting our capacity to work and negatively impacting our personal lives and relationships with family and friends. In short, no-one wants a back injury.
Under section 21 of our OHS Act the duty to provide a safe workplace falls to your employer and Hazardous Manual Handling regulations require an employer to ‘identify any hazardous manual handling undertaken’ (r26) then ‘control the risk’ (r27) by:
- eliminating the risk, or,
- if that’s not practicable, reducing it by
- altering the workplace, environment, or system of work
- changing the things used in the hazardous manual handling task
- using mechanical aids
- or any combination of the above
- if a risk remains, having implemented all the above, the employer may reduce thew risk using information, instruction, or training
- The employer may ONLY rely solely or primarily on information, training or supervision IF none of the above are reasonably practicable
When determining any control measures, the employer must take into account the following:
- postures
- movements
- forces
- the duration and frequency of the hazardous manual handling; and
- environmental conditions, including heat, cold and vibration, that act directly on the person carrying out the hazardous manual handling
You may find our Hazardous Manual Handling webpage a helpful, and perhaps our Right to Refuse Unsafe Work webpage.