The Australian media is providing considerable coverage to the legal claim by two female workers against Airservices Australia over bullying and sexual discrimination. Airservices Australia is a government organisation that control aircraft movement over Australian airspace. The details of the harassment mentioned in the media are quite offensive and have no place in the modern [...]
All posts for the month July, 2010
Patient safety is also workplace safety
Rosalind McDougall wrote in The Age on 26 July 2010 about the excessive and dangerous workloads of junior doctors in Australia. Similar articles have appeared elsewhere in the world for years but the hazard persists. Part of the reason for the hazard’s persistence is evident in the article if one considers the hazard as a [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on July 26, 2010
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2010/07/26/patient-safety-is-also-workplace-safety/
Australian PM mentions OHS harmonisation in election debate
On Sunday 25 July 2010, during the first debate of Australia’s election campaign, Prime Minister Julia Gillard used OHS harmonisation as an example of an achievement that she has been able to introduce that has benefited the Australian people. The process is in a public hiatus at the moment that began before the election was called. Much [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on July 25, 2010
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2010/07/25/australian-pm-mentions-ohs-harmonisation-in-election-debate/
Root Cause is always found in decisions not things
Australian unionists are justifiably angry at the death of a worker at the construction site of a desalination plant in South Australia last week. The worker was crushed when a beam slipped from a sling on a crane and crushed him. The soft sling was being used so that the beams would not be scratched according [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on July 21, 2010
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2010/07/21/root-cause-is-always-found-in-decisions-not-things/
I felt the job was driving me nuts: Stressors and Stress
For two decades now the occupational stressors/stress regulatory debate in Australia has limped along with the same arguments, same objections, same type of discussions. The same largely impractical documents mentioning psychological effects, physical effects, ‘good stress’ and what is or isn’t a disease and, of course, finger-wagging advice about risk assessments. Exactly how has all [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on July 20, 2010
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2010/07/20/i-felt-the-job-was-driving-me-nuts-stressors-and-stress/
OHS law reform should not rely on Courts for clarification
Since the early 1970′s OHS law has been “de-lawyer-fied”. The intention of the law is to empower workers and employers to manage safety in the workplace to meet basic human rights – the right not to be injured at work, the obligation not to hurt others. Good law allows for the basic legislative tenets to [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on July 19, 2010
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2010/07/19/ohs-law-reform-should-not-rely-of-courts-for-clarification/
BHP Billiton receives minimal OHS penalty – time for a new approach
Some time ago a penalty concept circulated in Australia where OHS penalties were implemented as a percentage of as company’s revenue or profit. The concept gained renewed topicality in mid-July 2010 as BHP Billiton was penalised $A75,000 after the death of a worker, Scott Rigg. (Video report available) The fine seems paltry for a fatality and more [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on July 19, 2010
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2010/07/19/bhp-billiton-receives-minimal-ohs-penalty-time-for-a-new-approach/
A gut feeling for workplace risk
We all do it, we use language to both inform and at times mislead. However, when the latter happens in the field of OHS it can be a very damaging to standards. I’d like to draw attention to one such (class of) circumstance but I’m not sure that the very language I need to use [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on July 17, 2010
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2010/07/17/a-gut-feeling-for-workplace-risk/
Montara oil spill report still not released and restlessness is increasing
At least one state government in Australia is becoming annoyed with the delayed release of the investigation report in to the Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea in 2009. The Federal Government has had the final report for almost one month. In an ABC media report: “The Country Liberals environment spokesman Peter Chandler [said] “There’s [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on July 15, 2010
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2010/07/15/montara-oil-spill-report-still-not-released-and-restlessness-is-increasing/
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