consultation – Page 62 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Are OHS inductions sound?

Mostly no.

Over the years I have experienced site safety inductions that have involved sitting in front of a television and video player in a shed and then telling the safety manager I watched the induction video and understood it.

I have sat in a site shed with a dozen others and endured an induction of scores of PowerPoint presentations and a questionnaire that was, almost, workshopped and did not represent any understanding of the work site’s OHS obligations.

There have been long inductions where there is a lot of information but no handbooks to take away or to refer to later.

There have been OHS inductions that have involved no more than “there are the toilets, the tea room is over there and there’s a fire extinguisher here somewhere”.

Bad induction is an unforgiveable flaw in a company’s safety management system and clearly indicates a careless attitude of companies towards their employees’ and contractors’ safety. The significance of induction should not be underestimated because it has two purposes – to establish a common state of knowledge of all workers on a site before one starts work and to have a reference point for investigations of any incidents. Continue reading “Are OHS inductions sound?”

Only an OHS expert can deal with the problem

Occupational health and safety(OHS) is supposed to be a skill that anyone can obtain and apply but it is often complicated by experts. This is not to say that OHS is “common sense”. The notion of common sense is a nonsense.

Several years ago, Laurie Anderson performed in Melbourne, Australia. Her show was “Homeland” and the song that I most remember from her performance was “Only an expert“. There is a wisdom in the song that remains as topical as much now as it did when I heard it at the start of the international banking crisis and the US home lending crash. Anderson has been able to update the lyrics of the song to include the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Patient safety is also workplace safety

Rosalind McDougall wrote in The Age on 26 July 2010 about the excessive and dangerous workloads of junior doctors in Australia. Similar articles have appeared elsewhere in the world for years but the hazard persists. Part of the reason for the hazard’s persistence is evident in the article if one considers the hazard as a workplace hazard rather than a patient safety hazard or a matter of customer service.

McDougall states the impact of excessive workloads for doctors:

“While most hospitals now have policies advocating ”safe hours”, the reality is many junior doctors work shifts that fail to meet the guidelines.”

“Numerous studies (as well as commonsense) indicate that doctors’ technical skills are compromised when they work too long.”

“While certainly not universal, some practices make it almost impossible for junior doctors to work safe hours.”

Where is the OHS regulator? Is workers’ compensation for stress, fatigue or psychosocial hazards ever invoked by junior doctors? Are there OHS guidelines for the safe operation or design of hospitals and emergency wards? Continue reading “Patient safety is also workplace safety”

The importance of evidence in OHS decision-making

There are a couple of actions in Australia’s OHS profession that are worth linking together. The first is occurring outside OHS as well and that is the demand for evidence-based decision making. The second is the push by the Safety Institute of Australia and others to establish a core body of OHS knowledge.

On the first point a recent Editorial in Elsevier’s “Policy and Safety” journal summarise the recent evolution of evidence-based decision making and evidence-based polices (EBP) which gained credence through the governments of Tony Blair particularly. The editorial states that much of this push is a management strategy

“…based on the common-sense notion that business strategies and directions are underpinned by a solid information base will be superior to navigating without reliable charts and compass.”

In some ways this “notion” may be an assumption or an ideal. The notion is sound, as far as it goes but, according to the editorial, evidence could be better used informing policy rather than providing the foundation. Continue reading “The importance of evidence in OHS decision-making”

Oil rig workers speak about BP/Deepwater incident

The worker impact of the BP/Deepwater incident in the Gulf Of Mexico has finally been provide a mainstream media airing in 60 Minutes. Workers Comp Insider blog provides some commentary and embedded video of the show.

It is a curiosity of American television that everything is open for discussion even though an official inquiry is underway. This may be to do with the fascination of all things television but may also be reflective of a country whose legal structure allows for greater and more immediate self-analysis than the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth colleagues.

From the information available about the events preceding the disaster and immediately after, there was an increased production pressure on the oil rig’s workers. There was some confusion on the authority for decision-making on process matters. Emergency procedures were not well-developed or the practicalities anticipated.

Clearly there were flaws in the safety management system regardless of any design issues. The governmental inquiry will be able to provide a much more detailed and dispassionate report of these events but it is clear that at this one oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, safety management was not clearly understood or applied by workers at the frontline.

The world is looking forward to the “big picture” report.

New suicide report has something to say about workplace mental health

Work-related suicides have been in the press a lot in Australia over the last six months. In June 2010, the Australian Government released a report into suicide called The Hidden Toll: Suicide in Australia. It covers suicide as a social issue broadly but there are some mentions in the report about work-related suicides that are worth noting.

On social costs:

“Ms Dulcie Bird of the Dr Edward Koch Foundation argued that whole communities are often affected when a suicide occurs and described low estimates of the number of people effected by suicide as ‘a load of nonsense’. She gave the example of the suicide of a 16-year-old boy in a small town and noted her organisation had completed ’43 face-to-face interventions for that one suicide’. The Foundation commented that suicide results in the loss of the deceased person’s contribution to society as a whole. Continue reading “New suicide report has something to say about workplace mental health”

Teacher stress, resilience and protective factors

Teaching is a stressful occupation. Any occupation that requires one to not only talk to people but to educate them, is stressful. Imagine having to do this every week day in front of over twenty people who do not want to be there. During your lunch break, instead of putting your feet up and reading the paper, you may be required to patrol the inside of a wire fence wearing a fluorescent vest followed by children sucking up or making fun of you. On days off, you still have scribbled essays to mark or neatly written essays to vet against Wikipedia all the time. During holidays you travel hours to a remote caravan park on the bend of a river and there will still be a school child who recognises you and keeps saying “Hello, Sir”.

Such can be the life of a teacher but teaching is conducted at a workplace and health at work is a legislated obligation and expectation. On 23 June 2010, the Tasmanian Government felt the need to clarify some media reports concerning the stress levels of its teachers. The Education Minister, Lin Thorp, said in a media release that

“… a total of 57 Department of Education employees, including teaching and non-teaching staff, had taken stress leave in the year ending March 2010. This figure is the same as for the previous year. Continue reading “Teacher stress, resilience and protective factors”

Category: consultation

Are OHS inductions sound?

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Only an OHS expert can deal with the problem

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Patient safety is also workplace safety

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The importance of evidence in OHS decision-making

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Oil rig workers speak about BP/Deepwater incident

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New suicide report has something to say about workplace mental health

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Teacher stress, resilience and protective factors

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