OHS – Page 176 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Humour, bystanders and safety

Effective consultation is a core element of building a functional safety management system in any workplace. This involves talking and listening. Various occupational health and safety (OHS) regulators have pushed this point in the past usually with static images of mouths and ears but WorkSafe New Zealand has released a series of videos in support of its existing”How you can use your mouth” campaign. Thankfully WorkSafeNZ has taken a leaf from the Air New Zealand book and used humour.

Of particular interest is the brief but importance emphasis on the role of the ethical bystander.

OHS needs a Benchbook too

Australia’s Fair Work Commission (FWC) has released the latest (March 2018) edition of its Anti-Bullying Benchbook. This is a regularly published document that offers background to its decisions and definitions used by the FWC through case studies and plain-English explanations. The Benchbook clearly states that any occupational health and safety (OHS) issues are to be directed to the relevant OHS regulator but the book provides useful insight to a more (and limited) industrial relations approach to workplace bullying.

A major attraction of the

SafetyAtWorkBlog update – Episode 4

The fourth video update of SafetyAtWorkBlog activity is now available for viewing below or at our YouTube channel. In the update I reflect on some of the current workplace safety blog topics and mention a couple of new books that I have received to review.

Kevin Jones

“We cannot buy the health of people with money”

By Melody Kemp

Walking my dog along the Mekong in Vientiane, new piles of building rubble litter the river bank. The capital has long had a problem with plastic waste, but as unbridled wealth spreads and humble buildings are replaced by garish McMansions, building rubble is turning up in the general detritus. Among the bricks was what looked like the residue of shattered Asbestos Cement sheets; but without necessary skill and a microscope how could anyone tell?

A Vietnamese trader arrives. He rifles through the remains, takes a few of the bigger bits, tosses them in the trailer behind his bike and leaves with a nod. Later, in the main street outside a hardware shop, a large box of mixed waste lies waiting for collection. Laos do not separate their waste at source and while there may be provisions for hazardous waste, procedures are not observed. Out of date drugs, toxic chemicals, poohy nappies are tossed into or along the river; are burned or go into general land fill sites. Or are scavenged.

Those few minutes epitomised some of the social/behavioural difficulties of controlling hazardous materials in any of the Mekong nations. Things are changing thanks to the efforts of ex-ILO Technical Adviser Phillip Hazelton. Continue reading ““We cannot buy the health of people with money””

Safety satisfaction survey surfaces in Safeguard

Australia’s independent review of the work health and safety laws is handicapped by performance criteria not being included in the original harmonisation process. This lack of forethought is not unique and many infrastructure projects, in particular, fail to include research opportunities and priorities in the design of the project. These omissions provide more significance to surveys of occupational health and safety (OHS) perceptions such as the report that was released (not yet available online) this week by Safeguard magazine in New Zealand and will feature in the magazine’s next edition.

The survey is based on responses from over 900 people and is the third annual

Sexual harassment Code developed in isolation

Screen Australia has released its sexual harassment code of conduct. If any film project in Australia desires government funding it will need to comply with this Code. The Code is a good starting point and will need support from a broad range of elements of the entertainment industry but this Code is indicative of problems with many such codes that see the issue as a legal one rather than a safety and cultural one.

iWitnessed tool holds promise for workplace safety

On April 3, 2018, the University of Sydney launched a new app

”to assist victims and witnesses record information in a way that can help with convictions and prevent miscarriages of justice”.

This immediately sparked my interest in using the app as a record of workplace incidents.

iWitnessed is intended as a tool to assist a person’s memory when confronted by an incident or a traumatic event. The app steps you through the basic evidence-gathering questions of what happened, where, when, who was injured etc.

Category: OHS

Humour, bystanders and safety

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OHS needs a Benchbook too

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SafetyAtWorkBlog update – Episode 4

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“We cannot buy the health of people with money”

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Safety satisfaction survey surfaces in Safeguard

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Sexual harassment Code developed in isolation

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iWitnessed tool holds promise for workplace safety

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