audit – Page 2 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Pressure, Disorganisation and Regulatory Failure

A reader recently asked why I haven’t written about the recent retirement of Professor Michael Quinlan. Michael has featured in many SafetyAtWorkBlog articles over many years and has been a major supporter for industrial, labour relations and occupational health and safety research in Australia and elsewhere for a long time.

He has many legacies but this article will focus on one tool he developed with his associate Phillip Bohle – the Pressure, Disorganisation and Regulatory Failure (PDR) model. PDR is explained at length in this excellent 2011 research paper written with Elsa Underhill and is summarised in the table below:

The banks are having their culture changed for them and OHS needs to watch and learn

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is easy. Change is hard. OHS can identify workplace hazards and risks but it is the employer or business owner or Person Conducting Business or Undertaking (PCBU) who needs to make the decision to change. All of this activity occurs within, and due to, the culture of each workplace and work location. OHS lives within, and affects, each company’s organisational culture but a safety subculture is almost invisible, so it is worth looking at the broader organisational culture and there is no better show, at the moment in Australia, than The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (the Banking Royal Commission).

Public submissions are littered with references to culture but it is worth looking more closely at what one of the corporate financial regulators said in a submission in April 2018. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) wrote:

Is workers’ compensation less important than other insurances?

In late July 2018, the Victorian Auditor-General Office (VAGO) released a report into the insurance risks of several Victorian local councils. It is reasonable to expect the costs of workers’ compensation insurance to be addressed in the report but this was not the case. Although it is clearly an insurance product, the Auditor-General excluded workers’ compensation insurance. This position continues to sideline workers’ compensation implying to Victorian Councils, if not businesses, that it is less important than other business insurances.

The best example of this implication is found on page 48 of the report in a graph

Focus on safety rather than the Standard

Recently the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA) published an opinion piece about the new international Standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, ISO45001. The article professed to answer the question “what does ISO 45001 mean for OHS professionals?” Below is the SafetyAtWorkBlog’s response to that question based on the points raised by the SIA.

The SIA’s Roland Tan states that ISO45001

“provides an opportunity to benchmark with global best practice in managing OHS risks and initiate opportunities to improve OHS performance.”

Australian OHS professionals need to ask whether their clients need to benchmark globally. If not, how is ISO45001 relevant? It is not. You would be wasting everyone’s time.

Video Update #5

I provide a quick summary of SafetyAtWorkBlog articles over the last month in this video update as well as mentioning a new OHS book that seems of interest and a mention of my involvement with the International Auditing Symposium.

Kevin Jones

Quick and dirty summary of new OHS management Standard

I really enjoyed presenting at the Central Safety Group’s monthly meeting yesterday*. (Taught me not to use slide presentations if you can avoid it.). Here is a brief summary of my take on the new international Standard for OHS Management Systems – ISO45001 – that I shared with the group members. Continue reading “Quick and dirty summary of new OHS management Standard”

Concerns over ISO45001 voiced but no details provided

The publication date for the first truly international Standard on occupational health and safety (OHS) management systems, ISO45001, the rhetoric is heating up in Australia.

Category: audit

Pressure, Disorganisation and Regulatory Failure

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The banks are having their culture changed for them and OHS needs to watch and learn

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Is workers’ compensation less important than other insurances?

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Focus on safety rather than the Standard

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Video Update #5

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Quick and dirty summary of new OHS management Standard

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Concerns over ISO45001 voiced but no details provided

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