Last week, Maddocks law firm conducted an end-of-year summary of its workplace relations issues and a forecast for 2025. Occupational health and safety (OHS) are almost inseparable from industrial relations (IR), so the overlaps between the four or five topics discussed were enlightening and provided a good contrast to the information from other law sources....
[The following article discusses suicide] In November 2024, Victorian Coroner John Cain said: “”While our early research suggests that Victoria’s suicide rate has not increased overall, it is troubling that we continue to see no sustained reduction in lives lost.” Cain has instigated a research program with the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health …
[The following article discusses suicides] Suicide has been a running thread in this blog for many years, and the occupational health and safety context will continue to be examined. The issue appears in unlikely locations, such as a book translated from French called “The New Spirit of Capitalism”. The study of suicide is finally overcoming …
One of the most important sources of information about occupational health and safety (OHS) is seminars organised by law firms. A great example was a webinar hosted by Herbert Smith Freehills on October 30, 2024, as part of its Safety Leadership Series. It was a general discussion on Australia’s most prominent OHS issues but outlined …
The corporate cultures of Australia’s mining industry have been under substantial scrutiny for over a decade. Sexual harassment, bullying, work-related suicides and more psychosocial hazards have been identified with strategies introduced to address the cultures that contribute to these occupational harms. On 20 November 2024, Rio Tinto released a progress survey on its cultural change …
This is the second in a possible series of articles based on an artificial intelligence analysis of decades of audio interviews and recordings with occupational health and safety professionals, academics, lawyers and more used for this blog and my other writings. This time, I asked: What are the most substantial impediments to improving the health …
To understand one’s profession, one must find out how others see it. You may think your actions are vital to the world’s survival, but if others think you are full of shit, you need to revise your strategy. Occupational health and safety (OHS) has a strong sense of its importance but is often seen by …
