Category: business

Calculate the cost of your overwork

Long working hours have been identified as a major contributor to poor workplace mental health. International benchmarks have been identified as tipping points for mental health. A local Australian initiative to highlight the risks associated with overwork is Go Home on Time Day, which The Australia Institute supports.

Fewer companies than when the day started in 2009 seem to be supporting and promoting the day in their wellbeing calendars. Perhaps because the day identifies the shameful fact that employers will not stop workers from working long hours “if the workers choose to” even though the evidence is that the practice is harmful.

Its working hours calculator is a major part of the Go Home on Time Day initiative.

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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 Safety and Health at the International Labour Organization, Manal Azzi, available online, was once such. This SafetyAtWorkBlog article is the full, slightly edited, transcript of that interview.

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Leadership and Culture confusion is self-inflicted

Every occupational health and safety (OHS) conference over the last twenty years seems to have revolved around the twin concepts of culture and leadership. The fascination with these concepts deserves analysis as they are confusing, and sometimes conflicting, and this is unhelpful for those in the lower or middle order of the management structures who are trying to affect change.

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Work From Home conflict between corporate desire and worker reality

The working-from-home (WFH) debate continues in business newspapers with tension about what the employer and worker want. The Australian Financial Review (AFR) has its regular voices from business groups saying that it is damaging productivity for workers to be away from the offices as much as they are, but also reporting the lived experience of working from home with workers identifying positive social and familial benefits.

On November 25, 2023, the newspaper confirmed that Amazon Australia is using career progression as a nudge for workers to come to the offices more frequently.

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Politics can mask OHS

The push for workers to return to offices for the majority of their working hours or full-time continues but is one step forward and two back, or vice versa. This is partly due to mixed mainstream and online media messages from conflicting and confusing sources. This is not helpful when one is trying to make a decision on the best available evidence.

A recent example was in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) on November 22, 2023 (paywalled). A commercial real estate services provider CBRE, has released quarterly figures that say workplaces in Melbourne are “only a little over half-occupied on average”. According to Tom Broderick of CBRE:

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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 a significant case and a prosecution with lessons for managers and employers well outside the transport sector. In fact, the NHVR’s “Key takeaways for executives” could form the basis of a solid and productive business management system.

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Arguing over the WorkCover scheme’s viability again avoids harm prevention

The Victorian Parliament has been debating legislation the government claims is essential to fix a “broken” workers’ compensation system. There are a lot of elements to what is broken – premium increases, political access to WorkSafe finances, political topping up of WorkSafe finances, high numbers and costs for workplace mental health compensation claims and more. What is largely missing is a discussion on the prevention of mental health injuries at work.

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