The Act also represented a significant shift from the
prescriptive former legislation which spelt out in detail
the safety requirements. The former approach created
a mindset amongst the industry to simply follow the
“letter of the law” and not address safety issues that fell
outside the legislation. Given the pace of technological
changes and differing work processes across industries,
legislation will always lag behind safety risks. This
unsatisfactory situation calls for the need to engender
greater industry ownership of OSH outcomes. Hence,
the WSHA emphasises the importance of managing
OSH proactively, by requiring stakeholders to take
reasonably practicable measures to ensure the safety and
health of all individuals affected in their course of work