Category: evidence

Maybe Australia is looking in the wrong direction on harmonising workers’ compensation

South Australia has pledged to increase competition in its local workers’ compensation scheme in the hope of improving (some say fixing) it.  Most other Australian States have a competitive structure with private insurers.  In a couple of years, those insurers will be battling it out to achieve national coverage as the Federal Government moves to harmonise the State systems.

New data from Canada shows that perhaps Australia needs to take a deep breath and nationalise workers’ compensation for the good of the injured workers and business.

A February 2010 report from the Institute for Work & Health has concluded that

“The public administration of workers’ compensation in the Canadian systems provides a strong economic benefit to employers, arising from the lower administrative costs of a single public agency compared with the costs arising in a competitive insurance market. Continue reading “Maybe Australia is looking in the wrong direction on harmonising workers’ compensation”

When looking to understand psychosocial issues, ask your grandparents

In February 2010, the New York Times ran an article about depression by Jonah Lehrer.  The same article appeared in some of Australia’s weekend newspapers in early March.  Lehrer looks at the issue of depression and considers whether there is a potential upside to the disorder by looking back as far as Charles Darwin for expressions of depression.  He makes a challenging statement:

“…that depression has a secret purpose and our medical interventions are making a bad situation even worse.  Like a fever that helps the immune system fight off infection — increased body temperature sends white blood cells into overdrive — depression might be an unpleasant yet adaptive response to affliction.”

Lehrer goes on to make a case for depression being a possible source of creativity.

He refers extensively to the evolutionary psychology research of Andy Thomson and Paul Andrews who acknowledge that

“… depression is a vast continuum, a catch-all term for a spectrum of symptoms.”

Perhaps, particularly in the relatively recent consideration of depression in workplaces, we are being too narrow and too specific.  Perhaps the case for workplace depression being made by some of the “depression sellers” is too targeted and we need to remind ourselves of the sociology of work, a perspective that seems to have gone out of fashion. Continue reading “When looking to understand psychosocial issues, ask your grandparents”

Workplace bullying data from Denmark

In occupational health and safety (OHS) and other workplace research, Scandinavia is often quoted.   The application of research findings to other nations is of dubious value but often Scandinavian research provides clues to potential OHS hazards or control options.

In February 2010, the European Working Conditions Observatory published online a research report into workplace bullying.  The report says

“Investigating the impact of bullying on psychological stress reactions according to the Impact of Event Scale, the NFA study finds that negative acts which potentially isolate the individual at the workplace, acts directed towards the person and unreasonable workloads induce most psychological stress.” Continue reading “Workplace bullying data from Denmark”

Workplace bullying questions to WorkSafe

Following the successful prosecution of four people for bullying 19-year-old Brodie Panlock, SafetyAtWorkBlog, with the assistance of a lawyer put several questions to WorkSafe Victoria about the case.  Most of the questions and their responses are below:

“SAWB: Could you please advise the reasons for the decision to prosecute the recent workplace bullying case in the Magistrates Court as opposed to the County Court?    My understanding is that this choice limited the potential fine for the individuals involved to 500 penalty points instead of 1800 , and for the company to 2500 instead of 9000.

WV:  In this case, we thought the Magistrates’ Court had the appropriate sentencing discretion to impose a proportionate and fair sentence.

In addition, Magistrates’ Court proceedings takes less time and produce more certain results than County Court proceedings – these charges were issued in July 2009 and resolved in February 2010.   Continue reading “Workplace bullying questions to WorkSafe”

Promising work flexibility and health research doesn’t go anywhere

“A new evidence review* suggests that giving employees more flexibility over their work schedules is likely to boost their health as judged by measures like blood pressure and stress. But interventions that are motivated or dictated by the needs of the employer, such as cutting hours, either have no effect on employee health or make it worse.

“Control at work is good for health,” said review co-author Clare Bambra, a researcher at Durham University, in England. “Given the absence of ill health effects associated with employee-controlled flexibility and the evidence of some positive improvements in some health outcomes,” Bambra said, more flexibility in work schedules “has the potential to promote healthier workplaces and improve work practices.”

The above quote indicates that new evidence may help all of us in assessing the benefits or otherwise of allowing employees to telework, or of readjusting work practices to improve health and safety at work.

BUT

an article issued in support of the research clearly identifies the risks of drawing almost any firm conclusions from the evidence other than that more research is required: Continue reading “Promising work flexibility and health research doesn’t go anywhere”

Workers’ Compensation becomes an election issue in South Australia

On 12 February 2010, the Greens parliamentarian, Mark Parnell, accused WorkCover Corporation of failing injured workers in South Australia.  In response to the release of the Parliament’s Statutory Authorities Review Committee (SARC) inquiry into WorkCover, he said

“The Greens have been saying for a number of years now that the outsourcing of WorkCover’s claims management is a failed experiment, and must be reversed….. Until WorkCover fixes up the poor management of injured workers, it will never get out of its financial mess.” Continue reading “Workers’ Compensation becomes an election issue in South Australia”

Asbestos awareness high. Safety? Not so

On 15 February 2010 Safe Work Australia (SWA) released a report entitled “Asbestos Exposure and Compliance Study of Construction and Maintenance Workers“.

It found, according to the SWA media release:

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