The Australian Government is committed to increasing the manufacturing sector through its Future Made in Australia strategy and legislation. To participate in the program and receive funds or tax incentives, companies must meet the Community Benefit Principles, including providing safe and healthy workplaces....
Adam Smith was a prominent Scottish 18th-century economist and philosopher, sometimes referred to as the “Father of Economics”. What relevance could he have to occupational health and safety (OHS) in Australia? The modern OHS concern of psychosocial hazards, psychological safety and worker wellbeing should cause us to read Smith’s works on the morality of capitalism. …
Wade Needham provides his personal responses to a series of questions regarding psychosocial hazards, offering a fresh and more corporate perspective. This continues the series of articles based on speakers at the recent Psych Health and Safety conference....
Culture has perhaps become the dominant theme in modern occupational health and safety (OHS). Possibly more dominant than Leadership. Culture remains an amorphous concept that is an inclusive adjective but also unhelpful. Several recent events started making connections in my OHS brain that I am still working through:...
The Australian Financial Review has looked at the local Australian context of the United States opposition to continuing workplace initiatives on diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI), The AFR contacted some Australian technology companies for their leaders’ thoughts as overseas the DEI opposition seems loudest in tech companies. The media attention overseas has also come from the activities of …
Occupational health and safety has traditionally been considered under the category of industrial, or industrial relations, but largely this is due to the major advocates of OHS being the trade union movement. So OHS seems to fit with workers’ rights under the issues of wages and conditions, but really OHS is a social law. According …
Risk and governance software company Navex published a forecast for 2025 which has some occupational health and safety (OHS) relevance. It wrote “Rising temperatures in the workplace: Addressing civility concerns” which said “Workplaces increasingly mirror the polarization we see in the world, with tensions surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, and political …
