Many Australians expressed concerns over the potential workplace health and safety impacts of various free trade agreements Australia has entered into over the last few years. Those concerns may be starting to manifest if a report in The Age newspaper on 4 June 2016 is correct.
In January 2015, this blog said of Australia’s Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption (TURC): “Workplace safety has not been the focus of this Royal Commission but it is one of its victims”. The Royal Commission’s final report was released on 30 December 2015, and it is time to look at the mentions …
Australia’s Productivity Commission (PC) has released its final report into the Workplace Relations Framework. Almost all media discussion has been about potential changes to penalty rates but, as mentioned in an earlier blog post, workplace bullying is part of the inquiry’s terms of reference, submissions were sought on this and the final report identifies one …
Unsurprising from a global business magazine, The Economist’s special report on January 15 2002 (paywalled*) bemoaned the new “enthusiasm for regulation”. It clearly includes occupational health and safety (OHS) laws and Australia in its consideration but stops short of asking why this new enthusiasm exists. Many regulations, especially in OHS, are proposed and introduced to …
The Australian Institute of Safety and Health’s online national conference offered some big topics this year. One of the most anticipated was the discussion of sexual harassment in the workplace. Luckily the panel discussion included big hitters such as Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins whose week was about to get a lot busier with the …
This article was written after a request from the Safety Institute of Australia and distributed to its members on June 4, 2019. Some additional links have been added.[If you want exclusive OHS-based articles, contact Kevin Jones directly] So, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) did not win the Federal Election that most people expected it to …
2020 will be the fiftieth anniversary of the collapse of the West Gate Bridge which resulted in, amongst others, the deaths of 35 workers, changed Victoria’s approach to occupational health and safety (OHS), instigated a Royal Commission into the disaster, strengthened trade union influence and established an industrial antagonism to the John Holland group of …
