Safe Work Australia’s Review and the Predictable Politics of OHS Change

The “Best Practice Review of the Model Work Health and Safety Laws” report released by Safe Work Australia (SWA) is a lot to digest. Summaries and initial analyses are already appearing on some LinkedIn and law firm posts, but the report needs careful consideration. The recommendations seem sound, but such things almost always trigger a knee-jerk reaction from business groups, driven by ideological objections and concerns about increased business costs. I suspect we will see some of this objection in the media over the next few days.

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Rethinking Safety by Focusing on the Risks We Rarely See

Recent Nordic research has dropped a number that should unsettle Australia’s safety regulators: fatal workplace incidents make up only 1% of work‑related deaths. If similar proportions apply here, our entire inspection and prevention model is pointed at the wrong end of the problem.

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Christopher’s Death and the Questions That Still Demand Answers

Patrizia Cassaniti has produced a remarkable book about how her life changed due to the death of her 18-year-old son, Christopher, in a scaffold collapse in 2019. Her story comes from grief and anger, and the book is one of the few that made me cry.

Cassaniti’s story is compelling and heartbreaking, but its refusal to name those responsible for the scaffold collapse shapes the book’s impact and raises deeper questions about accountability in workplace deaths. The new first-person accounts in the last third of the book are enlightening and enraging.

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Psychosocial Conflict & Confusion

Michael Plowright and I have launched a new limited-series podcast in support of National Safe Work Month.

Safe Work, Real Talk offers a plain-English discussion of the major issues around managing psychosocial hazards and psychological safety at work, bridging the HR and OH&S silos.

We bring together OHS practice, bullying research and real workplace stories to unpack how mental harm happens and how organisations can prevent it.

Continue reading “Psychosocial Conflict & Confusion”

If It Ain’t Broken…….

Earlier this week, I heard a person repeatedly say that Victoria was the last Australian jurisdiction to introduce obligations to prevent psychosocial hazards under occupational health and safety (OHS) laws. That is not strictly true.

Contrary to the established understanding, TWO Australian jurisdictions have not joined the harmonised Work Health and Safety (WHS) model laws: Victoria and Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island employers still regulate occupational health and safety (OHS) under an Act from 1988 created by its own legislative assembly, which existed at that time – the Norfolk Island Employment Act. “Psychosocial hazards” are not mentioned.

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When Psychosocial Harm Meets Pub Philosophy

Occupational health and safety (OHS) people talk a lot, but often they preach to the choir when they need to reach a new audience. Last night, philosophy academic Dr Peter Brace provided a lecture on psychosocial hazards and psychological safety to over 50 members of a diverse audience in an upstairs room of a Richmond pub. This is what he said and what I learned.

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New psychosocial podcast series

Australian employers continue to struggle to understand #psychosocial hazards and psychological harm. A lot of advice competes, conflicts and confuses. So, Michael Plowright and I are joining the effort to make sense of this #mentalhealthatwork challenge in a lively, plain-English way.

You may already follow me through this blog’s SoundCloud account, but this new four-episode podcast series – Safe Work, Real Talk – offers new plain-English perspectives and, we hope,m solutions, or at least pathways.

We’ll talk about #Leadership, what went wrong, what went right, the unhelpful conflict between #HR and #OHS, and return-to-work.

The first episode will be out shortly, with the remaining three episodes rolled out in support of National Safe Work Month.

If you have any questions about work-related psychosocial and psychological issues, email them to this link, and we will try to answer them “on-air”.

Kevin Jones