World Day of Health and Safety – Climate Change

The need for occupational health and safety (OHS) to adapt to the changing (deteriorating) global climate has long been discussed. This discussion may spike later this month with this year’s World Day of Health and Safety theme, the somewhat fatalistic “Ensuring safety and health at work in a changing climate“. Rather than look closely at …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

More management myths busted

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is rife with ideas that refuse to die even though they are not supported by evidence. OHS management is dominated by a belief that Executive Leadership is either the answer or the first place to start change. Leadership and OHS are dangerously intertwined. Perhaps an assessment of Zombie Leadership is …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

Predatory Capitalism and OHS

A fundamental aim of occupational health and safety (OHS) is the prevention of harm. To determine the most effective ways of preventing work-related harm, OHS professionals must investigate the source of harm. This requires them to look beyond their own workplaces to socioeconomic factors. Greed is the source of almost all of the world’s economic …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

Interview with ILO’s Manal Azzi

Last week, I was able to interview several speakers, sponsors and delegates at the 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, sometimes on behalf of the Congress and at other times privately. Some of these interviews were edited from forty-five minutes of content to ten. The interview with the Team Lead on Occupational …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

A transport court case relevant to all managers and employers

In November 2023, Australia’s National Heavy Vehicle Regulator released a “case learning” about a successful prosecution and sentence that the NHVR described as “One of the most serious examples of a breach under the HVNL [Heavy Vehicle National Laws]” The seriousness of the breach is perhaps reflected in the fine of A$2.3 million. It is …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

Engineered stone is unsafe at any level

Safe Work Australia has recommended: “a prohibition on the use of all engineered stone, irrespective of crystalline silica content, to protect the health and safety of workers.” So that should be it. No more engineered stone products for use in Australia. Apparently, that decision is difficult to make even though the top occupational health and …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.

Making Noise – Asian migrant workers

Racism is a word increasingly thrown around these days, the most current incarnation being in the controversy surrounding whether or not to allow Australia’s indigenous peoples a formalised Voice to Parliament. Unfortunately, Australia has no patent on this illogical and offensive tendency. In Asia, it is often aimed at other Asian races of what is …

Login or subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.