SafetyAtWorkBlog has repeatedly called for the release of the report into the Beaconsfield mine disaster that was undertaken by Greg Melick, QC. The Tasmanian Government has today made the report and appendices available online.
The OHS-specific reports by Professor Michael Quinlan have also been released.
SafetyAtWorkBlog has no expertise in the control of infectious diseases. Any enquiries received on the issue are directed to the official information on government websites such as Australia’s Dept for Health & Ageing or the US Centre for Disease Control, or international authorities such as WHO.
But this creates a dilemma for OHS regulators. If the regulator does nothing, it is seen as inactive – a bad thing. Or the regulator can issue its own guidance on infection control – a good or bad thing. It is an unenviable choice.
WorkSafe Victoria took the latter choice and issued their “OHS preparedness for an influenza pandemic: A guide for employers” in early May 2009. The guide is not intended to be definitive and may be useful in the future but infectious outbreaks can move rapidly and, to some extent, this document is shutting the door after the horse has bolted, in expectation of the next “door”.
The guide mentions the following sources but it could be asked what is gained by contextualising these Australian documents? Why not just direct companies to the raw documents?
The trap for producing localised guides is that recommendations may be made that are out-of-place, difficult to implement and, ultimately, question the credibility of the document. WorkSafe fell for this trap by specifying some recommendations for the legitimate control measure of “social distancing”.
In its employers guide it makes the following recommendations:
“A primary transmission control measure is social distancing, that is reducing and restricting physical contact and proximity. Encourage social distancing through measures such as:
- allowing only identified, essential employees to attend the workplace
- utilising alternative work options including work from home
- prohibiting handshaking, kissing and other physical contact in the workplace
- maintaining a minimum distance of one metre between employees in the workplace (person-to-person droplet transmission is very unlikely beyond this distance)
- discontinuing meetings and all social gatherings at work including informal spontaneous congregations
- closing service counters or installing perspex infection control barriers
- using telephone and video conferencing.”
The guide does recommend social distancing as part of a risk management process but “prohibiting handshaking, kissing and other physical contact in the workplace”? “Discontinuing … informal spontaneous congregations”?
How is a business expected to police these sorts of measures? Have someone walking the workplace reminding workers of the new “no touchy” policy?
The Australian Health Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza talks repeatedly about social distancing in workplaces, the community and families but never goes to the extent WorkSafe has.
The National Action Plan for Human Influenza Pandemic (NAP) defines social distancing as:
“A community level intervention to reduce normal physical and social population mixing in order to slow the spread of a pandemic throughout society. Social distancing measures include school closures, workplace measures, cancellation of mass gatherings, changing public transport arrangements and movement restrictions.”
NAP does not mention kissing, nor does the Business Continuity Guide For Australian Businesses .
WorkSafe WA has not issued anything specific on pandemic influenza, nor has SafeWorkSA, WorkCover NSW defers to NSW Health (which has a lot of information and a reassuring video from the health officer), and Queensland’s OHS regulator defers to its State health department.
Social distancing is an appropriate hazard control measure amongst other measures in an influenza risk management plan but the current WorkSafe Victoria guidance seems to be an unnecessary duplication, and on the matter of kissing, silly. Why, oh why did WorkSafe Victoria think it necessary to publish anything?
At the Safe Work Australia Awards ceremony in Canberra last week, the host Adam Spencer, noted that many of the nominees were dressed as ostentatiously as those who attend the Oscars. “Frocked-up” was the term he used.
It seems to SafetyAtWorkBlog that a major element missing from these important national awards is a useful name for the awards that provides instant recognition like the Oscars, or the Logies.
Suggestions are very welcome in the comments section below. The most suitable and original will receive a special OHS book as an acknowledgment of their creativity. The suggestion will then be taken up with the head of Safe Work Australia.
To start off discussions, SafetyAtWorkBlog would suggest that as sixteen workers died in the construction of the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge, the name of the first worker who died may be suitable (We are endeavouring to find who was the first construction death on that project).
However, Australian’s have a habit of allocating contrary nicknames such as Bluey for a redhead, Slim for a fat person. Perhaps, this peculiarity could be applied to the Safe Work Australia.
Please see what you can come up with this totally unauthorised speculation.
Recently I wrote an article for National Safety magazine entitled “Trials and Tribulations”. It came about because I heard about an OHS consultancy that was offering safety management services that included a component of insurance. The insurance was explained to me as covering any OHS fines or penalties that may eventuate for the consultancy’s clients.
This combination of services is very attractive and addresses fundamental OHS questions asked by employers of different sizes – “do I comply?” and “how do I know that I have a safe workplace?”. They’re slightly different questions but ones I come across regularly.
OHS regulators are getting better at helping small business establish a compliance benchmark through the use of compliance codes for some elements of workplace safety management – a semi-return to prescription. However, many small business owner do as much as they can to provide a safe workplace and still get prosecuted by the OHS regulator. This is frustrating and demoralising and in this context an insurance policy is attractive. The insurance would cover any penalties that the business receives even if the incident that generated the prosecution was “unforeseeable”.
The National Safety article includes legal opinions and insurance company opinions that don’t quite fit.
Some of the interviews I conducted with insurance brokers did little to assuage my unease at insurance policies. It seems to me that some insurance policies are taken out unnecessarily while other policies often exempt coverage for the very risks one thought the policy covered. I agree with many insurers who recommend that business insurance is best handled by an experienced risk manager. Sadly many OHS professionals do not have those skills.
In the context of the OHS consultancy, clients may be reassured by such an insurance policy but it should be an unnecessary expense. The consultancy provides a monthly assessment service that steers the company through specific workplace hazards. The consultancy provides some initial OHS advice and resources but no independent audits of the OHS system and the monthly monitors are not trained in OHS.
The consultancy says that following this system will provide compliance, and maybe it does. But even compliant workplaces can have incidents that could generate a prosecution. It is here where the insurance policy should apply.
The monthly assessment system needs to be diligently followed and payments kept current because non-compliance with the obligations of the system could leave an “out” for the insurer.
Statutory liability insurance, particularly for small business, needs to be examined by the OHS regulators. Most regulators approached would not comment on the record about such policies, others were dismissive. The article examines the legal issues further and, sadly, the article is not available online.
If the regulators are truly supportive of small business and OHS compliance for this sector, there should be some guidance on statutory liability issued. But like OHS professionals, regulators are not comfortable with policies that compensate (other than workers compensation). They focus on prevention and prosecution. It’s time to establish a broader source of OHS policy development, one which includes insurance companies, brokers and risk managers.
The edge of panic is starting to appear in Australian concerns over swine flu. Some health officials, who should know better, are slipping slightly off message. The Queensland government’s chief medical officer has recommended that food should be stockpiled. This was quickly jumped on by the Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, has tried to provide a more palatable context to the stockpiling:
“We want people to be aware of the risk of this disease, we want people to be taking sensible planning steps but we don’t want panic,” she said. “It’s very important that we don’t have a rush on products that people just during the course of their ordinary shopping might think about whether they have some of these extra supplies.”
The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has offered some of the blandest, but relevant, advice:
“For all Australians to engage in the simple practice of washing their hands with soap on a regular basis.”
Kevin Rudd is not the poster boy for personal hygiene unless eating one’s earwax is a suitable hygiene practice.
SafetyAtWorkBlog will continue to watch for evidence of the effectiveness of handwashing in influenza control.
Roxon’s advice is sound however in one very important way – sensible planning steps. Cut through the hyperbole. Listen to reputable health advice, and keep your colleagues and employees informed. If that happens, we’ll get through this threat.
This week workplace safety on a building site received a much needed dose of humour. The Australian show “ThankGod, You’re Here” had a comedian enter a pretend building site and have to face questions from an OHS inspector as if he was the owner of the site.
The sketch has added impact because of its timing. It is hard to imagine this occurring ten years ago in a society and industry where OHS compliance was less valued, when hardhats were considered optional and when brightly-coloured vests looked stupid. That the sketch is funny is a measure of how OHS regulation and enforcement has matured and just how successful the OHS regulators have been in changing the society’s attitudes to workplace safety in Australia.
Also, it shows something more illustrative of comedy, more true. In the sketch there are some wonderful stunts done by a small earthmover. Only last year there was outrage, and fines, over some forklift stunts done for real by a young driver in Melbourne. The environment makes the difference between laughter and outrage.
The success of the TV show’s concept is also indicated by the issue of the 12-year-old welder on the building site. The comedian, Merrick Watts, removes the issue of age by insisting the young boy is actually in his fifties and just looks younger.
WorkSafe Victoria, whose logo is worn by the pretend inspectors in the sketch, have said that they did not pay for brand placement and that the show did not belittle the work they do. In fact the show “actually showed that we have a job to do and that there are good reasons for it.”
Last night SafetyAtWorkBlog interviewed Rex Hoy, Group Manager with Safe Work Australia, the national safety awards night in Canberra. A podcast of an exclusive interview with Rex is available now.
