The New Starter on the Fryer
It is the first shift for a 17-year-old new starter, Mia, at a busy pub kitchen. The head chef is off the floor handling a delivery, and the sous chef asks Mia to take over the deep fryer while the regular fryer cook takes a break. Mia has completed online induction but has not been shown the fryer, the oil filtration procedure, or the burn first-aid kit location. The fryer oil is due for a change and the thermostat is reading 185 degrees Celsius, above the 180 degrees Celsius standard. A server is waiting on two baskets of chips and a plate of calamari. Mia says she is not sure she is allowed to use the fryer.
1. What should the sous chef do, and which work health and safety (WHS) duties and training principles apply?
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The sous chef should not leave Mia unsupervised on the fryer. Under WHS law, the employer has a duty to provide a safe system of work, and the supervisor has a duty to ensure workers are trained and competent before assigning a task. Mia has identified a gap, which is exactly the behaviour to reward. The sous chef should thank her, keep her on a task she is competent in, and either operate the fryer personally or recall the regular cook.
Training principles: competency must be demonstrated, not assumed from an online module. Mia needs supervised instruction on the fryer controls, safe oil handling, the filtration procedure, burn first aid, and emergency shutdown before working alone. The thermostat reading of 185 degrees Celsius is also a hazard: hotter oil smokes, degrades faster, and splashes more severely, so the sous chef should check the thermostat and change the oil before service continues. The two baskets and calamari should be delayed a few minutes rather than risk a scald injury to an untrained worker.
2. Mia asks whether she can sign off her own induction checklist to save time. How should the sous chef respond, and why does documentation matter here?
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The sous chef should say no. An induction checklist is evidence that a competent person has verified and supervised the training. If Mia signs it herself before being shown the fryer, the record becomes false, and the workplace loses the ability to prove training occurred. The correct process is that a supervisor demonstrates, Mia practises under supervision, the supervisor observes competence, and both sign with a date.
Documentation matters because it supports the duty of care, it identifies who is cleared for which equipment, and it guides rostering so untrained staff are not assigned high-risk tasks. It also protects Mia: if an incident occurs, a truthful record shows what she had and had not been trained to do. The sous chef should treat the checklist as a live tool, add the fryer as a task requiring sign-off, and schedule the training before Mia's next shift.