The Victorian Auditor-General is conducting an investigation into the “management of safety risks at level crossings”. Victoria’s Coroner is also investigating several, of the many, deaths at level crossings.
According to the Auditor-General’s website the level crossing report will be tabled in Parliament next month. It is understood that the three nominated level crossing hearings of the Victorian Coroner will commence sometime in 2010. Continue reading “Level crossing investigation reports”
Jeff Sparrow recently gained considerable media attention with his book that reflected on violence in society. Yossi Berger once described occupational health and safety as a “kind of violence” in his book of that title. There is a lot of research into occupational violence, much of it from the United States which, to some extent, has an unrepresentative view of this hazard.
An interesting, and brief, discussion on the matter is a chapter in the book “Perspectives on Violent and Violent Death” published by Baywood Publishing. The existential perspective of one particular chapter may make it impractical for safety management purposes but as a background article for provoking thought, it is very good.
Without this chapter I would not have found the work of C E Newhill* into client violence in social work or that of C L Charles. Charles identified some factors that have contributed to the “anger epidemic” which may provide some clues on understanding occupational violence. These are listed below:
Regularly Australian OHS authorities announce campaigns in certain regions or for certain industries. To some extent these campaigns are about raising awareness of OHS issues but the fieldwork by inspectors does have some real benefit for some employers and workers.
Often these campaigns result in scores of improvement notices being issued. Safety improvements are a major part of this inspectorate activity so, to some extent, the more notices, the better. But notices aren’t advisories, they are directions that require action. Continue reading “Compliance campaigns not toothless”
Newspapers regularly report of home mechanics being trapped or killed while working under their cars and the jack slips. This type of event is less likely in workplaces because workshops have hoists or pits where work can be undertaken under a fairly stable vehicle. However not all vehicle repair happens in a workshop.
On 26 January 2010 a judge in the Old Bailey in England fined a vehicle maintenance company, Aviance UK Ltd, £90,000 over the death of Mohammed Taj in March 2008 after being crushed under a baggage tug at Heathrow Airport. Continue reading “Inadequate support under a vehicle costs one life and £90,000”
On 25 January 2010, Jalor Tools P/L was convicted of two breaches of the 1985 version of Victoria’s OHS Act following the death of Ekaterini Peripetsakis in the week before Christmas in 2006. Ekaterini was hit in the chest by a piece of the router tool that broke off at very high speed striking killing her. She was working in her family’s cabinet making business.
Jalor Tools was prosecuted by WorkSafe Victoria because there was no information provided about the maximum permissible operating speed of the router – between 6,000 and 8,000 rpm. Continue reading “Prosecution of manufacturer of plant”
Recently, SafetyAtWorkBlog received a long anonymous email concerning the death of David Colson, Tasmanian abalone diver who drowned in October 2007. The Coroner completed his inquest into the death and released his investigation findings in early January 2010. An earlier blog article on the findings can be found here
The correspondent pointed out that Allen Hansen, founder and managing director of Tasmanian Seafoods, the company that was to receive the abalone harvested by David Colson and Tony Burton, and a director the Tasmanian Abalone Council for an Export Award. The award was in fact an Export Leadership Award.
There is no indication that workplace safety is a criteria in the awarding of the Export Leadership Awards. The Award website describes Hansen as
“…truly an industry ‘builder’ and has made an outstanding contribution to developing the premier image of Tasmanian abalone.”
Attitudes to OHS in the abalone industry
The Coroner found that Allen Hansen’s company, Tasmanian Seafoods, did not have any procedures in place for when a boat did not return on time. Continue reading “Something fishy in Tasmania’s abalone industry”
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has come in for a lot of “stick” over the last few years by seemingly over-reacting to OHS hazards. In many cases, these reports have come from a misinterpretation of OHS rules and guidelines or a misunderstanding of the basic principles of safety. In some cases it is simply a beat-up my England’s tabloid media.
However, this attitude to safety and the creation of a misperception of OHS has annoyed the HSE. Below is a video that the HSE produced, going by the tone of the video, in response to the bad press.
The “Right People” campaign seems familiar to many other campaigns attempted around the world and the introduction depicting silly headlines shows that the HSE is think-skinned.
Much more successful is the HSE’s recent campaign about safety in farming. Continue reading “Getting safety promotion right”