Over the past few months, I have increasingly encountered the term “regulated industries” in the context of occupational health and safety (OHS) laws. In OHS in Australia, these industries seem predominantly to include: I can identify no reason why farming should not also be a “regulated industry”....
The most significant challenges for employers in Victoria’s new OHS (Psychological Health) Regulations, supported by a new Compliance Code, are likely to be fostering a strong workplace safety culture. Occupational health and safety (OHS) advocates have been emphasising the importance of culture for several decades now (Sociologists examined it decades before). It appears that …
Earlier this week, I was a panellist at an occupational health and safety symposium organised by the Victorian Branch of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety. We were asked to be challenging and provocative in our perspectives on the evolution of OHS and OHS law in Victoria since the start of the century....
Many people in Australia are asking why any woman would consider a career in the military, given the considerable risk of sexual harassment, abuse and assaults. Occupational health and safety (OHS) and risk management disciplines often draw on many of the risk assessment processes and principles from the defence forces; however, there appear to be …
New South Wales recently ran its annual roundtable for the agriculture sector, focusing on workplace health and safety. A joint media release from the Ministers for Agriculture and Work Health and Safety, Tara Moriarty and Sophie Cotsis, respectively, acknowledged that: “Agriculture remains one of Australia’s most dangerous industries, with consistently high rates of workplace fatalities …
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:...
Charles Handy died in December 2024. He was a prominent author on organisational behaviour and business management and was recognised as a major thinker. It is fair to describe him as a pre-Internet influencer. His ideas never went away, but they faded under the neoliberal onslaught. With the decline of that ideology, Handy’s approach to organisational … Continue reading “Handy and organisational culture”
