Category: advertising

More OHS charges laid over insulation installer deaths

The OHS investigation process into the deaths of installers of insulation in Australia has led to charges being laid against Arrow Property Maintenance Pty Ltd.

On 28 June 2010, Queensland’s Department of Justice and Attorney-General has charged the company with breaches of both the  Electrical Safety Act 2002 and the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 following an extensive investigation into the fatal electrocution of a 16-year-old teenage insulation installer in Stanwell in 2009.

The charges relate to unsafe electrical work and unsafely working at height during the installation of fibreglass insulation.

Interestingly the Department has also mentioned in its media release (not yet available online) a separate prosecution under the Electrical Safety Act 2002 that is strengthened by it also being an

“… alleged breach of a Ministerial Notice issued on 1 November 2009 Continue reading “More OHS charges laid over insulation installer deaths”

Simpsons safety reaches Australia after 5 years and at twice the price

In 2005, a series of safety posters based on The Simpson TV characters was released in support of the National Safety Council’s Orlando Congress, as reported in SafetyAtWork Bulletin at the time, picture right).  The posters have finally reached Australia and will be unveiled at the Safety In Action exhibition on 2 April 2010.  They are sure to be popular.

A small selection of Simpsons posters will be available through WorkSafety Solutions, the Australian distributor.  Many more have been added through the original US distributor, SafetyWorld since the original launch. Continue reading “Simpsons safety reaches Australia after 5 years and at twice the price”

How many safety awards are too many?

On 23 March 2010, SafetyAtWorkBlog questioned the need for so many government-sanctioned OHS awards and noted that there is little overlap between wellness awards and safety awards.

On 26 March 2010, Australia’s Safety Rehabilitiation and Compensation Commission (SRCC) announced a new category in its OHS awards that will

“recognise organisations that promote health and wellbeing in the workplace–long before employees are affected by injury.”

The SRCC is the organisation that looks after the OHS of

“the federal public service, the Australian Defence Force and national companies in the Comcare scheme.”

With the addition of this new category, the SRCC finally has awards that represent the continuum of worker health and safety from prevention to incident to rehabilitation or compensation.   Continue reading “How many safety awards are too many?”

OHS exhibitions in Australia

Australia seems to have more OHS conference now than ever before.  The growth in annual conferences seems odd in a country with such a small comparative population but perhaps because the population is spread so much and there is such a strong resource sector, perhaps it is understandable.

SafetyAtWorkBlog put some questions about the phenomenon to Marie Kinsella, the Managing Director of Australian Exhibitions & Conferences, a major provider of these conferences and trade exhibitions in Australia.  Some of her responses are below.

Has the recent global finance crisis made it more difficult for AEC to attract stallholders?

“The shows’ exhibitors have not been immune from the GFC, particularly those with international head offices, Continue reading “OHS exhibitions in Australia”

Public sector union capitalises on WorkSafe bullying campaign

Through March 2010, WorkSafe Victoria is running a series of seminars on the issue of workplace bullying throughout Victoria.  In support of the campaign, the OHS regulator has a series of ads in the newspapers (pictured below left)

Cheekily the Community & Public Sector Union has “piggybacked” on the promotional campaign emphasising that the Victorian Government is changing the law to make it more difficult to claim workers’ compensation Continue reading “Public sector union capitalises on WorkSafe bullying campaign”

SafetyAtWorkBlog, Standards and advertising

This weekend in a SafetyAtWorkBlog comment, Simon Berglund posted a commercial link to an Australian Standard on the installation of insulation.  In his comment he did not reveal his commercial interest in posting the comment and I apologise for allowing it to be posted.

Simon Berglund  is the “Director, Sales & Marketing – Information Services (Asia Pacific) at SAI Global” and I was not aware of this before approving his comment.  His comment has now been deleted.

SafetyAtWorkBlog believes it is important to apply the appropriate standards to any workplace task and it may be the case that the Australian Standard Berglund linked to (AS 3999-1992) is the right document.  But the action illustrates several major obstacles in the practical application of OHS in Australia: Continue reading “SafetyAtWorkBlog, Standards and advertising”

“Imagination at work” but not safety

GE Capital placed a full-page pictorial advertisement in The Age newspaper on 4 March 2010 (page 5 of the business section).  The ad, partly reproduced below, promotes the company’s financial services with the corporate slogan of “imagination at work”.  Sadly safety at work wasn’t included in the ad.

SafetyAtWorkBlog readers are asked to list the workplace hazards in this picture.   Continue reading ““Imagination at work” but not safety”

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