Over the last few weeks, the media has been reporting on legal action taken by Blake Lively over accusations of sexual harassment on the film set of her movie “It Ends With Us”. The focus has been on the allegations of post-incident public relations manipulation, but this is obscuring the primary cause of the legal action – sexual harassment.
Self-help books often include a nugget of useful information related to occupational health and safety. Paul Taylor‘s “Death by Confort – How Modern Life is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It” offers a recent example.
Occupational health and safety (OHS) continues to have a credibility problem and a poor social profile. Some of this is due to OHS peddling nonsense, but probably no more than any other discipline. Some of it is due to employers and other corporate leaders using OHS as camouflage for inaction or as a distraction from a different workplace issue. Some of it is due to ignorance.
It is up to all of us to strengthen the discipline’s credibility. To help with this, here are three words commonly used by leaders that we need to question and challenge whenever they are used.
Continue reading “Red flags for OHS misunderstandings”The Victoria Premier, Jacinta Allan, reshuffled her Cabinet and recently allocated responsibility for the Workcover and Transport Accident Commission portfolios to Deputy Premier Ben Carroll. This may be the first time a politician of that position has been given these portfolios. But what should Ben Carroll do now?
At Christmas time, it is traditional for bloggers to reflect on the year past and to provide some basic statistics about their blog and readership. And thank the many loyal subscribers for their support.
The SafetyAtWorkBlog is a one-person operation that works out of usual business hours, supported by hundreds of dollars of media and legislative subscriptions and the occasional conference attendance. I try to provide exclusive content, and I thank my colleagues and subscribers who allow me access to many of their events that are closed to the public. With the parlous state of the media in Australia, I am often the only media presence at these events. I wish there were many more.
Continue reading “How did 2024 go?”Congratulations to Richard Franklin and Rebecca Michalak on winning a copy of John Brogden’s “Profiles in Hope” book. Please email me your mailing address, and I will despatch the books.
Thank you to all the subscribers who entered. I hope to do this again soon.
Effectiveness is critical in assessing one’s occupational health and safety (OHS) management system. One must be sure that the system works and to repair or improve that system when a deficiency is identified. We must create and maintain a safe system of work, and we must trust it and respect it.
So why do we feel the need to remind our colleagues of their OHS obligations, which the system has already educated them about? Indeed, they are grown-ups who know what they need to do and appreciate the importance of their own safety and the safety of their teams. Part of growing up is learning from one’s mistakes by experiencing the consequences of one’s decisions and actions. A large part of OHS management is keeping people from harm and recognising and accepting that people are integral to the management system.
