The Australian Financial Review on 24 March 2010 includes an article (only available through subscription or hard copy purchase) that states that the “tangle of state laws hampers compliance” by business on the issue of workplace bullying. Harvard Business Review reports on how to cut through the distractions and attend to a root cause of workplace bullying. Continue reading “Workplace bullying needs harmony and good managers”
Category: consultation
Prominent OHS lawyer to facilitate workers’ compensation reform discussions
SafetyAtWorkBlog has been able to confirm the rumour that Barry Sherriff, a prominent Australian OHS Lawyer who recently joined Norton Rose, has been contracted to facilitate a series of exclusive forums on the reform of Australia’s workers’ compensation system.
Sherriff was one of the triumvirate who investigated a model OHS law for the Australian Government and should fulfill his contracted role for Safe Work Australia (SWA) admirably. Continue reading “Prominent OHS lawyer to facilitate workers’ compensation reform discussions”
LTIFRs (sort of) gone from Australia Post
The Communications Division of the CEPU has been in negotiations with Australia Post for some time to establish a pathway to better industrial relations. On 18 March 2010 a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between the two parties, committing both to progress.
Of direct OHS interest is the following paragraph in the media statement about the MOU:
“As a gesture of good faith the MOU contains commitments from all parties that will apply immediately:
- Australia Post will host a summit in April between senior executives including the Managing Director and senior CEPU representatives on the future challenges facing the business, the unions and their members; and
- The removal of Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate’s in bonus targets for managers.”
Whether OHS will be discussed at the summit is unknown but the removal of LTIFR is of significance to OHS professionals.
Continue reading “LTIFRs (sort of) gone from Australia Post”
Two new free OHS magazines from Australia
Two interesting and useful OHS publications have been released in Australia. The West Australian Division of the Safety Institute of Australia has published its Australian Safety Matters magazine. It is freely downloadable and available HERE.
The second is a publication from Workplace Standards Tasmania and relates particularly to OHS issues related to the electrical, gas, plumbing and building industries. It’s published twice a year and is available for free download HERE.
Abuse, egos, corporate governance and the safety profession
On 15 March 2010, the National President of the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA), Barry Silburn, distributed an email to the 3,600 SIA members strongly refuting the “unsubstantiated claims of irregularities” that were, apparently made by Gavin Waugh, Western Australian Division President and former National Secretary, in a member discussion forum and email circulated to members a couple of days earlier.
Many SIA members will be perplexed by having such an email lob in their inbox without any explanatory background and with obtuse language. In some ways the email reads like the accountant has done a runner to spend all the members’ money at the casino. Continue reading “Abuse, egos, corporate governance and the safety profession”
OHS due diligence and safety management
In the February 2010 newsletter for Australian law firm, DLAPhillips Fox, Andrew Ball and Donna Trembath wrote about one of the important elements of the model Work, Health & Safety Act – due diligence. We look at how SafetyAtWorkBlog and other OHS information services can support due diligence on OHS matters.
Ball and Trembath list 6 elements in the definition of due diligence (in bold):
Acquire and have up to date knowledge of work OHS matters.
This first element is where business and OHS information sources are going to be crucial supporters. OHS law in Australia has always supported the need for companies and safety professionals to maintain a current state of knowledge. There have always been newsletters on OHS issues but it is very easy to fall into a habit of reading only the information that will assist one in their job rather than getting information that relates to safety throughout a workplace. The use of Health & Safety representatives or OHS Committees can be important in maintaining a “corporate” state of knowledge. Delegation of reading information can be very useful and HSRs and OHS Committees are probably the most neglected preventative tools in the safety professionals toolbox. Continue reading “OHS due diligence and safety management”
Discussion paper on Queensland workers compensation released
The Queensland Government has released a public discussion paper into its workers’ compensation scheme. Obviously this was part of the reason for the political argy-bargy in the State in late February 2010 over a report by Deloitte.
A major question posed in the discussion paper concerns the application of Whole Person Impairment (WPI) or Work-Related Impairment (WRI) as the assessment process. Currently only Queensland applies WRI and so the submissions to this discussion process may be quite useful in anticipation of the any review into the national workers’ compensation arrangements. Continue reading “Discussion paper on Queensland workers compensation released”