With the silly season fast approaching and attention focused on industry alcohol and drug issues in B&T recently, now seemed like a good time to take guidance from our Occupational Health & Safety experts and outline processes that support the safe consumption of alcohol at work functions.
Under the OHS Act 2000, agencies have a duty of care to protect health, safety & welfare of everyone attending in-premises and out-of-office events. Whilst everyone in the workplace has a role to play in occupational health and safety, ultimate responsibility for providing a safe environment rests with fairly and squarely the employer.
Certainly there are individual responsibilities to be taken into account and we have assembled a fairly rigorous checklist for party organizers and management. Go to go to the AFA website and click on Agency Resource Centre.
This checklist includes guidelines on venue risk assessment, security, responsible serving of alcohol (many agencies identify individuals with RSA qualifications), function conduct, the availability of adequate food (salty snacks do not suffice) and the responsibilities of the function organizer. A caution: don’t think responsibility to the venue if the function is off-premises. The buck stops with management.
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