Overview
This unit is designed to equip the learner with a comprehensive working knowledge of current work health and safety and workers' compensation law. Topics will include how common law and legislation are made, applied and interpreted, liability under the common law contract of employment, the common law duty of care and negligence and statutory developments regarding prevention and compensation.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2024
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from SUTE Feedback
To ensure that any extracts or materials provided are in a form that can be readily used by Speechify or similar
Discuss with the library ways to make materials more accessible to AI text to speech platforms
- Describe the current work health and safety and workers' compensation legal frameworks in Australia.
- Apply relevant principles in order to determine workers' compensation entitlements.
- Adopt a legal fault tree approach to the chain of incident causation in order to construct an accident analysis from a legal perspective.
- Apply common law and statutory work health and safety provisions to determine liability.
- Identify appropriate responses to the enforcement mechanisms contained in work health and safety legislation.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 20% | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | |||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | |||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | |||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | |||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | |||||
| 5 - Team Work | |||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | |||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | |||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | |||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | |||||
| 10 - First Nations Knowledges | |||||
| 11 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 20% | |||||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | |||||||||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
k.perry@cqu.edu.au
Week 1
Begin Date: 08 Jul 2024Module/Topic
Introduction to law
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapter 1
Prescribed readings in Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Live Introduction Zoom lecture
Pre-recorded Lecture on Introduction of Law
Week 2
Begin Date: 15 Jul 2024Module/Topic
Common law
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapter 1
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on Common Law
Tutorial
Week 3
Begin Date: 22 Jul 2024Module/Topic
Statute law
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapter 2
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on Statute Law
Week 4
Begin Date: 29 Jul 2024Module/Topic
OHS as a component of the contract of employment
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapter 3
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on OHS as a component of the contract of employment
Week 5
Begin Date: 05 Aug 2024Module/Topic
Compensation and the common law - negligence
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapters 4 & 5
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on Compensation and the common law - negligence
Vacation Week
Begin Date: 12 Aug 2024Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 6
Begin Date: 19 Aug 2024Module/Topic
Compensation under statute law
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapter 11
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on Compensation under statute law
Week 7
Begin Date: 26 Aug 2024Module/Topic
Introduction to work health and safety under statute law
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapter 7
Prescribed readings in Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on Introduction to work health and safety under statute law
Week 8
Begin Date: 02 Sep 2024Module/Topic
The primary duty of care under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapter 7
Prescribed readings in Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on Primary Duty of Care WHS Act Part 1
Legal analysis of potentially compensable injury Due: Week 8 Monday (2 Sept 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Week 9
Begin Date: 09 Sep 2024Module/Topic
The primary duty of care (contd)
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapter 9 (pp.413-420) & Chapter 10 (pp.447-454)
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on Primary Duty of Care WHS Act Part 2
Week 10
Begin Date: 16 Sep 2024Module/Topic
Other statutory duties of care under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 - corporate officers, workers & others
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapter 8
Prescribed readings in Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on Statutory Duties
Week 11
Begin Date: 23 Sep 2024Module/Topic
Consultation
Chapter
Prescribed readings in Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on Consultation
Week 12
Begin Date: 30 Sep 2024Module/Topic
Enforcement
Chapter
N. Foster, Workplace Health and Safety Law in Australia, 2nd ed. 2016, Lexis Nexis, Chapter 9 (pp.420-437)
Events and Submissions/Topic
Pre-recorded Lecture on Enforcement
Legal analysis of workplace incident Due: Week 12 Friday (4 Oct 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Review/Exam Week
Begin Date: 07 Oct 2024Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Exam Week
Begin Date: 14 Oct 2024Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Written Assessment
Read the case provided on the unit Moodle site and answer the questions relating to it, with reference to the material in weeks 1 - 3 of the unit.
Format is short answer style; it is not an essay or report. Submissions should be in Word or PDF format only. Referencing of external sources is not required in this assessment.
(800 - 1 000 words)
Vacation Week Monday (12 Aug 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Within 2 weeks of due date
Your submission will be graded according to the following criteria:
Relevance (30%)
- Depth of understanding in formulating responses to the assigned task
- Alignment of responses to the assigned task
- Connections between discussion and evidence
Validity (40%)
- Depth and extent of discussion i.e., understanding of concepts and evidence
- Accuracy and originality of the discussion
- Judgment and reasoning i.e., assertions made based on level of critical thought, analysis and synthesis
- Depth and extent of evidence used
Organisation (20%)
- Consideration of required components of the assigned task
- Structure and flow of information
- Coherence and clarity of expression (spelling, grammar, syntax)
Presentation (10%)
- Style and formatting in accordance with required academic standards
- Typographical matters
- Length
- Describe the current work health and safety and workers' compensation legal frameworks in Australia.
- Adopt a legal fault tree approach to the chain of incident causation in order to construct an accident analysis from a legal perspective.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
2 Written Assessment
A scenario is provided on the unit Moodle site.
In the context of the material covered in weeks 4 - 6 of the unit, analyse the case and determine whether the injured person(s) has/have a claim for compensation and, if so, on what basis.
Submit your answer as an essay, in Word format only. Inclusion of external sources should be referenced appropriately.
(1 500 - 2 000 words)
Week 8 Monday (2 Sept 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Within 2 weeks of due date
Your submission will be graded according to the following criteria:
Relevance (30%)
- Depth of understanding in formulating responses to the assigned task
- Alignment of responses to the assigned task
- Connections between discussion and evidence
Validity (40%)
- Depth and extent of discussion i.e., understanding of concepts and evidence
- Accuracy and originality of the discussion
- Judgment and reasoning i.e., assertions made based on level of critical thought, analysis and synthesis
- Depth and extent of evidence used
Organisation (20%)
- Consideration of required components of the assigned task
- Structure and flow of information
- Coherence and clarity of expression (spelling, grammar, syntax)
Presentation (10%)
- Style and formatting in accordance with required academic standards
- Typographical matters
- Referencing protocols
- Length
- Describe the current work health and safety and workers' compensation legal frameworks in Australia.
- Apply relevant principles in order to determine workers' compensation entitlements.
- Adopt a legal fault tree approach to the chain of incident causation in order to construct an accident analysis from a legal perspective.
- Apply common law and statutory work health and safety provisions to determine liability.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
3 Written Assessment
Read the scenario provided on the unit Moodle site.
With reference to the material presented in weeks 7 - 12, you are required to determine whether any of the provisions of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (or comparable legislation in Victoria or Western Australia) have been breached?
Explain your answer with reference to the various duty holders involved and specific provisions of the Act, Regulation, relevant Codes of Practice and any other relevant guidance material.
(2 500 - 3 000 words)
Submit your answer as an essay, in Word format only. Inclusion of external sources should be referenced appropriately.
Week 12 Friday (4 Oct 2024) 11:55 pm AEST
Within 2 weeks of due date
Your submission will be graded according to the following criteria:
Relevance (30%)
- Depth of understanding in formulating responses to the assigned task
- Alignment of responses to the assigned task
- Connections between discussion and evidence
Validity (40%)
- Depth and extent of discussion i.e., understanding of concepts and evidence
- Accuracy and originality of the discussion
- Judgment and reasoning i.e., assertions made based on level of critical thought, analysis and synthesis
- Depth and extent of evidence used
Organisation (20%)
- Consideration of required components of the assigned task
- Structure and flow of information
- Coherence and clarity of expression (spelling, grammar, syntax)
Presentation (10%)
- Style and formatting in accordance with required academic standards
- Typographical matters
- Referencing protocols
- Length
- Describe the current work health and safety and workers' compensation legal frameworks in Australia.
- Apply relevant principles in order to determine workers' compensation entitlements.
- Adopt a legal fault tree approach to the chain of incident causation in order to construct an accident analysis from a legal perspective.
- Apply common law and statutory work health and safety provisions to determine liability.
- Identify appropriate responses to the enforcement mechanisms contained in work health and safety legislation.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
